Chinese European International Business School (CEIBS) is a business school located in Shanghai, China. The school was co-founded by the Chinese government and the European Union in 1994. CEIBS follows the European model of business schools. CEIBS was the first business school in mainland China to offer a Full-time MBA, an EMBA, & a wide range of other executive education programs. The program has been ranked #1 in Asia & #5 in the world by the Financial Times in its Global MBA Ranking 2019. CEIBS has given several notable alumni. Some of the well-known alumni members include Yang Lan (Co-founder, SUN TV), Chen Hao (Governor of Yunnan Province), Lan Yu (Fashion Designer), & Liu Qiqngdong (Founder & President, JD.com). According to the class profile of 2021, 172 students enrolled for the CEIBS MBA Program from 23 countries around the globe. A total of 37.2% of the class consists of International Students, while 40% includes female candidates. In this article, we shall let you know more about the CEIBS MBA Program.
CEIBS MBA Program is an 18-month long program. The curriculum includes a total of 64 credit points (33 for core & 31 for electives) & it encourages independent thought & team collaboration among the students. The core courses cover the essential management foundation & business fundamentals skills needed in a leader. It includes subjects like Strategic Management, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Operations Management, Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Marketing Management, Organizational Behavior, among others.
Along with this, there is a pool of electives available for the students. It includes subjects like Fund Management, Impact Investing, Digital Marketing, Negotiation, Healthcare: Economics & industry, Human Resource Management, etc. The school also provides a total of 6 overseas electives. Students can choose to opt for one of them to fulfill the international experience requirement. Some of the overseas electives include Ghana: Doing business in Africa, USA: Innovation & New Technology, Japan: Entrepreneurship & Innovation, etc.
The curriculum focuses heavily on China. Many of the case studies discussed in core courses & elective courses are taken from CEIBS’s pool of China-specific cases. There are various initiatives like Integrated China Strategy Project, China Modules, etc. that help the students gain an in-depth knowledge of how the business works in China. Other than this, basic Chinese language competency is compulsory for international students.
The students who do not speak Chinese during the admissions at CEIBS are recommended to attend a Chinese language course in the summer before the MBA class begins. Chinese language classes are also offered during the first year of the CEIBS MBA program. In the autumn of second-year, students can opt to go on an international exchange program in any of the 40 partner schools of CEIBS or choose to stay at the school to study with a large number of inbound students from the world’s leading business schools.
Some of the CEIBS partner schools for the international exchange program include London Business School, Kellogg School of Management, Chicago Booth, HEC Paris, ISB Hyderabad, Tuck School of Business, Insead France, etc. Please note that CEIBS also provides an intense 12-month program for those who are planning to return to their family business, sponsored company, or start their venture.
Eligibility
Academic requirement:
The applicants are required to hold a bachelor’s degree or above in any discipline. There is no minimum graduate GPA required to apply for the CEIBS MBA program.
Work Experience:
A minimum of 2 years of work experience is required to apply for the MBA program at CEIBS. The average work experience of the class of 2021 is 5.5 years.
Tests:
Applicants are required to take valid standardized MBA tests like GMAT or GRE. Along with this, the school also provides an option to opt for the CEIBS admissions test. The CEIBS Admission Test is an option provided to applicants in place of the GMAT. It is similar in style to the GMAT except that it does not have the AWA Section and IR Section. There is no minimum GMAT or GRE score requirement to apply for the CEIBS MBA Program. However, the average GMAT scores for the class of 2021 stands at 681. MBA applicants are also required to submit an English Proficiency Test like IELTS or TOEFL since the language of instruction at the CEIBS is in English.
The tuition fee for the 18 months CEIBS MBA Program costs RMB 438,000 (that is approximately 47 lakhs Indian rupees). The tuition fee includes teaching materials (except notebooks), use of Internet resources on campus, & access to the school’s database. For housing, students can choose to stay either on-campus or off-campus. The CEIBS has four student dormitory building. The fee for a single room is RMB 3,000 per month or 54,000 for 18 months (that is 5.8 Lakh Indian rupees), and it includes facilities like water, electricity, air conditioning, & Wi-Fi.
Scholarship
The school provides a rich & diversified scheme of scholarship & fellowship options to the students enrolled for the CEIBS MBA program. The scholarship can either be merit-based, diversity-based, need-based, or company-based. In 2019, over 30% of the MBA 2020 students received fellowship or scholarships, covering 20-100% of their MBA tuition fees. Applicants are recommended to apply in early rounds to ensure the availability of scholarships. Please note that there is no application required for these awards. All the admitted students are considered for the same.
Some of the merit-based awards include Business leadership scholarship, Business fellowship, Entrepreneurship fellowship, Excellence scholarship, & Young talent scholarship. Some other scholarships offered by the CEIBS stakeholders include:
-Infineum Scholarship (a sum of RMB 200,000 based on both merit and financial needs), Omnicom (A sum of USD 20,000 based on the performance on written essays), Shanghai Municipal Government Scholarship (to encourage international candidates to study in China), etc.
-Other than these awards, students can finance their MBA program through student loans. There are many local options like your local bank that might provide you with a loan option. The school recommends the candidates to research the local options thoroughly first.
-There is also the Prodigy Finance loan scheme available for the international students.
-CEIBS Dishuiquan Interest Subsidy is yet another opportunity where the students can reduce the pressure of making interest payments while studying at CEIBS.
Students can benefit up to RMB 20,000 in the form of discounts on tuition fees through this scheme.
Reportedly 94.9% of the class of 2019 received the job offer within 3-months of the graduation. And 94.3% accepted the job offer. The annual median base salary received by the class was RMB 450,000, with a range of 107,000 to 1,080,000. Along with this, a record 100% of the students received other guaranteed bonuses. The median guaranteed bonus received by the class was RMB 100,000, with a range of 9,600 -900,000. Those placed in the manufacturing industry received the highest median pay of RMB 695,000, followed by the students who were placed in the real-estate with the median salary of 675,000.
The top three industries for the placement session for the class of 2019 were
Technology 23%
Financial Service 21.6%
Health Care 12.8%
The top 3 business function chosen by the students were
General Management 26%
Finance 24.7%
Marketing/Sales 21.2%
Some of the top employers who participated in the placement sessions 2019 include
Amazon
Apple
Viva
Oppo
Microsoft
Bain & Comp
PwC
FTI Consulting
J.P. Morgan
HSBC etc.
CEIBS MBA Program is highly competitive, and hence students are encouraged to apply as early as possible. The Online Application checklist includes,
2 Letter of Recommendation
University Degree
University Transcripts
ID or passport
GMAT/GRE score
English Language Test
Application Fee of USD 180
Interview:
After receiving the applications, the admissions committee will review all applications and will shortlist applicants for interview. Applicants can choose their interview location, except in some special cases. Generally, the interview panel consists of CEIBS faculty, department directors, alumni, and admissions manager. In most of the cases, the applicant is interviewed by two interviewers only. The interview lasts for 30 minutes & is conducted in English.
For the applicants residing in mainland China, a face to face interview is compulsory. However, if the applicant is working or studying outside mainland China, the admissions committee will make other arrangements such as videoconferencing. After the interview, the admissions committee will again evaluate all the applications and make four lists including, final admission, conditional admission, waiting list, & denied.
For the students listed in the conditional admission list, the school feels that the applicants need some additional preparations before starting their CEIBS MBA program. It can be to strengthen the analytical background or improve English communication skills.
Every year the CEIBS comes up with different essay questions. However, the context usually remains the same. Last year, the school came up with an optional video question for the first time.
Following were the essay questions for the CEIBS MBA program 2019-20:
Essay 1 — Discuss your post-MBA career aspirations (short term and long term) and explain how you plan to achieve them (400 words).
Essay 2 — Choose one of the following:
2(a) Describe your most significant achievement to date and explain why you consider it such an important accomplishment. (400 words)
2(b) Discuss a situation where you have demonstrated significant leadership ability. (400 words)
Essay 3 — Choose one of the following:
3(a) Many would argue that entrepreneurship is not necessarily a state of being, but a state of mind. Describe an entrepreneurial experience where you went against the grain or conventional way of thinking, to discover and create new value. (400 words)
3(b) Identify up to two trends, big or small, that you see unfolding in the next decade. Discuss how these trends might affect you and your career, and how you plan to address them during your MBA or after you graduate. (400 words)
Optional Essay 1 — Is there any other information that you believe would be helpful to the MBA Admission Committee in evaluating your application? (200 words)
Optional Essay 2 — You are encouraged to showcase your life and career in a short video, no longer than three minutes.
As you can see, CEIBS provides applicants with two choices in the 2nd & 3rd essay. It is a great opportunity for the students to focus on the essay question in which they have more to contribute. Or you can research all possible answers for both the questions before choosing one particular essay question to respond to.
For the first essay, try to be clear about your post MBA career goals. Boosting too much or explaining too little — neither of this will help you. Try to maintain a balance while answering this question. For the video question, although it is optional, it says ‘you are encouraged’ to answer it. And hence, we would recommend you to take it as a compulsory question only.
CEIBS MBA program is one of the most prestigious MBA programs, not only in Asia but in the World. Here the students are made capable of dealing with complexity & changes in the local as well as the global environment. CEIBS is, no doubt, a school of Global choice.
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