Hi,
I have started doing my research on am MBA Program in the UK very recently, and plan to enroll myself for this Sept intake. It would be highly appreciated if you can give me some insight in to my findings/concerns as under.
1) I am a Mechanical Engineer with 14 years experience in the field of Technical Sales and Marketing (Product Marketing).
2) I am keen on doing an MBA which has focus on Marketing. I am considering Birmingham and Bradford at the moment, but am open to your suggestions of other programs which may suite me.
3) I will be self-funding and have a budget of UKP.20K at best.
I am currently in India.
May I know if anyone can guide my research in the proper direction please?
Thank you.
Jay

Your choices are limited by time and budget. For marketing, Birmingham is the better choice.

Getting a marketing job in UK is very difficult as you are from India and I think knowledge of culture and local contacts are very important to work in marketing domain. I would suggest you can seek for career in strategy, planning, NPD etc

@ Duncan: Yes, I am late and hence wanted to take a decision soon without making a mistake. Many thanks for your valuable input.
@ MBA Fm UK: Many thanks indeed for your suggestions. I was also concerned of this point that you have made on getting to work in the Marketing domain without local experience. I am glad that you pointed it out.

I do have a limited work experience in Strategic Plannig in Dubai for almost 5 Years, which I did enjoy! So if you suggest that Strategic Plannig is something that could be best for me, that looks interesting to me too. I am certainly going to review the programs once again and take an appropritate decision.

So can we say Birmingham MBA would be the most suited (witihin my budget) for both Strategy as well as Marketing perspectives?

Hi If you are looking for strategy and marketing I would suggest that you can look at Bradford MBA as well as they offer good electives in both strategy (3 electives) + 1 core module and in Marketing including Product innovation and Business simulation which is quite unique in it self. with regards to fees, i think its more of less similar to Birmingham.
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/management/programmes/mba/full-time-mba/mba-in-the-uk/
Mamit

Getting a marketing job in UK is very difficult as you are from India and I think knowledge of culture and local contacts are very important to work in marketing domain.

I am wondering exactly what European schools mean when they claim that they do not factor in GPA on admissions. I am from the USA and I am trying to find a MBA program to go to in Europe and multiple schools I have contacted say that there is not a GPA requirement, is that really true? I have a lower GPA and I know I need a high GMAT to make up for it, but I want to know which would be the best schools to look at. Any advice would be great!

I don't think European schools all have the same response about this. As you know, European universities don't use the GPA system. They will look at your undergraduate transcripts and take a holistic look at your academic potential. But there will not often be a minimum GPA, since that would apply only to US students and would be arbitrary. Your GMAT will be more important than your undergraduate performance.

So how do they factor in GPA? If I have solid work experience and GMAT would that be enough to get me into a good school? Also I am trying to only apply to schools that are AMBA, EQUIS, and ACCSB. I am going to look at the schools that I decide on this summer and hopefully talk to someone in admissions, but I do not want to waste my time on applying to schools that I will not be able to get into with my GPA. Any suggestions? Thank you for your response

Getting a marketing job in UK is very difficult as you are from India and I think knowledge of culture and local contacts are very important to work in marketing domain.

I would be concerned about this as well. But one thing to think about is that many MBA programs now offer either internships or consultancy projects that allow you to work in a hands-on capacity with a company of your choosing. I know that Bradford offers something like this - I would use the project to try to embed yourself in a marketing role and learn about the atmosphere and skills required to succeed. If anything, you could leverage these kinds of experiences in your next job, whether it be in the UK or not.

Hi NiciPL.

They do look at undergraduate performance. When they say that they don't use GPA, that doesn't mean that they don't look at your undergraduate grades, it means that European schools don't grade on a four point scale and then produce a weighted average.

At the top schools you are applying to, the successful applicants will tend to have strong profiles one almost all the criteria, and to be weak on only one or two. I don't know your profile, but strong work experience (not just a lot of it, but interesting or unusual experience) and a strong GMAT will generally make up for a weak undergraduate degree if everything else looks okay.

I'd echo Duncan's thoughts here. I always recommend that people use their personal statements to discuss any potential weak parts in their profiles. Something along the lines of "although my GPA was low, I feel like I've matured since then, during my years of increasingly responsible work experience."

Hi NiciPL.

They do look at undergraduate performance. When they say that they don't use GPA, that doesn't mean that they don't look at your undergraduate grades, it means that European schools don't grade on a four point scale and then produce a weighted average.

At the top schools you are applying to, the successful applicants will tend to have strong profiles one almost all the criteria, and to be weak on only one or two. I don't know your profile, but strong work experience (not just a lot of it, but interesting or unusual experience) and a strong GMAT will generally make up for a weak undergraduate degree if everything else looks okay.