Russian MBA™

Should you go for Columbia or Cranfield, LBS or NYU Stern?

You may be based in London and doing business in Europe, but when it comes to doing an MBA you’re probably still better off across the Atlantic.

Although Europe’s MBA schools have progressed in leaps and bounds in the past decade, American banks in Europe (and even European banks in Europe) still favour schools in the US.

Merrill Lynch, for example, targets London Business School, INSEAD in France and IESE in Spain for European associate hires. In the US it targets Wharton, Columbia, Harvard, Chicago, and NYU Stern.

The head of associate recruitment at one major European bank says around 60% of its European MBA intake is sourced from US schools: “Big US schools are just streaks ahead in terms of their faculty and curriculum,” she says. “If you want to go into banking, you need to follow the banking route – Wharton is the top business school for finance and it has been for years.”

This may be changing. Research from London-based recruiter EM Finance suggested that students from European MBA schools were 57% more likely than their US contemporaries to be hired last year – however, the stats included recruitment at consulting firms, which tend to favour the likes of Cranfield Business School in the UK , which are all but ignored by banks.

The associate recruiter says some European schools are making their mark. “LBS have ramped up their ability to attract professors, which enhances their overall programme. We’re seeing more American students actually coming there to study as a result.”