Hi Guys!

I'm a current student of the St. Gallen MBA program. I'm starting this thread to help prospective students gain info about this wonderful course.

for basic questions however, i would recommend that you go through the initial posts of my blog (Stuart Little Gets an MBA at St Gallen!).

Go ahead and fire in your questions

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

I've been reading your blog for some time now, and I am seriously considering St. Gallen's MBA.  You've said how the MBA students are very tight-knit, and I am curious about the students' goals for pursuing the MBA, in general.  Is there a large concentration of former finance and banking professionals?  Do many want to go into finance and banking?  Are there a decent percentage of career switchers?  Are there any Americans in the program?  How is career services?

I am quite familiar with the reputation of St. Gallen in the German-speaking countries (in other words, a strong regional brand) and the advantage of the 12-month format.  What other reasons led you to choose St. Gallen?  Do your classmates also share a common reason for St. Gallen?  Do many want to stay and work in Switzerland?

As far as the summer project goes, is it a paid internship?  My desire is to pursue a career in I-banking, so I want to try to get a summer internship to "check it out" first.  I know the 2-year programs are designed for this, but I see no reason why it cannot be achieved in a 12-month program.

There are many reasons why I can think St. Gallen is a great fit for me.  For one, I know I'll love snowboarding every winter weekend in the Alps! 

Any other insights or advice you can provide, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,

William

That's a very informative blog! To be honest, I though St Gallen is pretty well known in the German speaking world as a university but I had no idea they had an MBA!

Do grads from this school get jobs in the rest of Europe, e.g., in London? How about global placements?

How does St Gallen compete with IMD in terms of reputation and placement?

About the Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund presentation - which office of GS was represented? London, or somewhere in Switzerland?

(Btw, for those who are interested, the St. Gallen MBA is here: http://snipr.com/stgallen_mba -- not a terribly forthcoming website so far.)

Hi Jane,

thanks for ur encouraging comments. :)

Looking at the immediate two previous batches, most people are based in and around Zurich...and a majority of the rest are in Europe...this is primarily because of grads prefer working in switzerland because of the high salaries but amazingly low tax rates here.. so most guys are based out of Zurich... I'd also prefer working here.. imagine u get a 120K swiss Francs and pay 10% or less in taxes.. !!! as against 50k-60k pounds in the UK with prohibitively high taxes ... besides cost of living in Switzerland is cheaper too!

For recruitment,workshops and guest lectures, the company representatives come from a variety of offices..with Zurich, Frankfurt and London (in that order). Firms having big offices in Zurich send the Zurich guys while others send people from both Zurich and Frankfurt/London offices.

The rep from Goldman Sachs was from the Zurich office. This week we're gonna have guest lectures in investment banking and valuation by reps from the Zurich offices of UBS and Mckinsey.

while on December 14th we have a guest lecture by a top guy from JP Morgan , London. and on Dec 19th we have a workshop on valuation by senior executives of Morgan Stanley Frankfurt.

St Gallen Vs. IMD: IMD is more towards industry and not so much towards I-Banking or consulting. Besides the candidates there are older...the median age of the IMD MBAs is atleast 4-6 years higher than that at St. Gallen.

St. Gallen has a reputation in finance, economics, business administration and international affairs that is unrivalled in German speaking  Europe (not just Switzerland). The top consulting and I-Banking firms are full of St. Gallen executives. if on the other hand you want to go to the industry, the ABBs and Novartis and Hiltis of the world will offer you a large number of projects for your MBA summer internship. My buddies in St Gallen also applied to IMD but they somehow didn't like it.. so it is also a question of "fit" and preferences.

Since the MBA program is new, it will debut in the FT rankings only in 2010.. but when it does it is going to cause major upsets in the ranking tables!

About the MBA website: a new one is in the works and should be up in a few weeks. Till then u can follow my blog! 

Hi trader!

thanks for ur interest. I'll try to answer your queries one by one. However, i suggest that you also read my reply to Jane2010 in this forum.

First the class composition and aspirations. I've discussed these issues in details in my blog post http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/11/getting-inside-class.html . About 10% of my class is American.

Work in Switzerland? :Yes, this is primarily because of grads prefer working in switzerland because of the high salaries but amazingly low tax rates here.. so most guys are based out of Zurich... I'd also prefer working here.. imagine u get a 120K swiss Francs and pay 10% or less in taxes.. !!! as against 50k-60k pounds in the UK with prohibitively high taxes ... besides cost of living in Switzerland is cheaper too!

Summer internship: Yes, it is a paid internship with a monthly salary in the range of 3.5k - 6k swiss francs a month.

Career Switching: This is the primary aim of most MBA applicants . However, changing both , the industry as well as the position (seniority) together is not easy. However, the internship offers you an opportunity to convince your future employer that u can work well in the new field and that too as an experience manager. I know people from the previous batch who have done this. However, this depends on individual abilities to convince prospective employers to offer you the summer internship in the first place. i.e. if you are a doctor wanting to go to financial services,you have  to convince UBS that u can be a good I Banker..

However, it will be easier convincing Novartis that you are a good fit!

Switzerland and Winter sports: The alps are amazing! and there's so much that you can do! have a look at http://mhs.gadmin.ch/download.cfm?item=78069 . you will love it!

My personal reasons for choosing St. Gallen and switzerland:  http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/07/st-gallen.html

cheers!

 

  

Thanks for the response. It sounds like a pretty interesting program. I have to agree with your colleagues about IMD too, having attended their session at the Shell building in London.

I am well and truly surprised about the tax rates in Switzerland. 10%?! I thought it was more like 50%. Is this a Zurich phenomenon to have such low tax, or special rates for internationals, or special rates for only a year or two before it goes to real rates of close to 50%?

When you say investment banking, do you mean in Zurich/Frankfurt, or London? I have to admit I know Zurich more for the "Swiss banks" than ibanking. But I'm curious now. I suppose the CEOs of Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, UBS, etc must be from St. Gallen, but I also know that these top banks recruit from the top US and UK schools for their global positions.

How far is St Gallen from Zurich?

On the MBA page, there isn't much information about placements. Would you know of any PDF file or web link where I can find this information? Also, are you getting any kind of career help? Given that this is a 1 year program, is there any opportunity for internship?

Thanks!

PS: On a totally unrelated note, could you please consider making your blog a little less colorful! The taxi black with yellow is a bit unfriendly to the eye :)

I am getting a number of answers from your blog. This answers my question about London/Zurich placement for banks: http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/10/investment-banking-days.html  

  

I've gotta leave for a party at my professor's house.. so i'll try to make it a quick post.

Tax rates in Switzerland: can range from a measly 4% (in Zug) to about 15% in Zurich. It basically depends on which Canton (state) you reside in.

Career Help & investment banking: We have a dedicated career services..   http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/08/career-services.html  and a comprehensive personal development program ( I will shortly post a blog on this ). We also have a 3 month paid intership (see my reply to trader1234 in this forum). St Gallen is about an hour from Zurich and is very well connected by the SBB (swiss rail). Placement stats.. i had a pdf somewhere.. i'll have a look and post it.. if i forget,.. just send me a note.

I'm really happy to receive your inputs regarding my blog. I've changed the yellow on the first few posts to grey .. how is the light blue?  I would be pleased to hear more views on improving my blog.

cheers!

I think I was a bit elated with the tax rates, but you are skipping the point about social insurance and such. In Switzerland there is federal and cantonal tax: http://www.lowtax.net/lowtax/html/jswpetx.html

You may have been referring only to the income tax in a cantons, but that's not the only one. The different taxes add up. I have a couple of friends who work in Zurich and they often pay between 40% or 50% in reality.

But it sure sounds like an interesting option to have. Keep up with the blog! I think you should just go for a light gray background (if you don't like white if it's too bright) and dark text, perhaps very dark grey instead of black. Links can be blue etc. Your blog's point is to be informational so you can skip the beautification. Just my 20 cents :)

Stuart,

Thanks for the reply.  I'm sorry I made you repeat things already in your blog.  It is extremely informative, so I thank you for that service and keep the posts coming!

I'm going to submit my app for the 1 FEB deadline, but I haven't started my essays just yet.  My GMAT is Monday, and I feel confident of scoring at or above the average for St. Gallen.  It appears from the type of essay questions in the app that St. Gallen puts a premium on leadership.  Is that a valid assumption?  Is there a particular profile candidate that St. Gallen is looking for?

I understand that it is ultimately upon the student to convince the potential employer that he can add value to the company and can fit in with the corporate environment.  How much have you used career services thus far into the program?  Do you find their services helpful? 

I plan to visit the school should I be invited for an interview, so I'm looking forward to seeing the snow in St. Gallen this winter!

Working anywhere in Switzerland or Germany would be ideal for my family, because my wife is German and a doctor.  It is near impossible for her to find a job in the UK to complete her residency (another 5 years left), so I've recently ruled out all the UK schools.  Plus, London left a bad taste in my mouth after I spent nearly two weeks there.  However, my wife and son won't be accompanying me to the MBA.  Instead, the plan is for them to follow-on where I eventually land a job.  Again, the ideal locations are in Switzerland and Germany, so I really like the fact that St. Gallen is placing graduates primarily into these two countries.  My German isn't stellar at the moment (about an intermediate level), but I intend to be fluent before graduating from the MBA.  Did I read correctly from St. Gallen's website that they offer free German courses?

Thanks again for taking the time to answer our questions!

William