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Application Deadlines
Admissions operate a rolling deadline; available places are filled on a continual basis.
November 2nd, 2016: For visa purposes, is the last deadline for the MBA program.
December 2nd, 2016: Last deadline for EU nationals
ESMT’s 12-month MBA program runs from January to December. The program is in English and has only 65 to 75 students in a given year, says Rick Doyle, head of marketing/degree programs — and that means the Berlin-based school has to be very particular about who gets in. “Because in a class of 65 you can’t hide, you have to participate and you have to be in the right program, otherwise you’re not going to be happy and everybody else is going to know that.”
ESMT’s acceptance rate of 25% includes students from 40 countries, Doyle says, including 40% from Europe, 20% from Asia and 20% from Africa and the Middle East. Of the 92% of the current students who are non-German, the largest nationality groups represented are the United States and India respectively, he says.
There is little flexibility in the program’s core courses, Doyle says, citing one popular core project that puts students to work on a business plan attached to a case study with a focus on sustainability. Instead, he says, electives are where ESMT’s students find more flexibility, choosing between a mixture of technology, innovation, and sustainability. “Some students focus more on one than the other,” Doyle says, “but for the most part it’s a mix, with people looking to bring innovation to markets, innovating within companies for long-term growth, including sustainability or a mixture of both. There are also many opportunities to focus on entrepreneurship.”
Applied learning opportunities at ESMT include an eight-week consulting project in which students work in a group setting for an established company or a startup in Berlin. This also is where students may find themselves doing the most travel, as research or delivery of results may find them jet-setting around the globe, Doyle says. More direct opportunities for international experience happen during the international field seminar or the Global Network for Advanced Management Network in week 4.
Eighty-three percent of ESMT’s December 2015 graduating class found work within three months of graduation, with 7% of those starting their own companies. They went into the technology, consulting, energy, media, and financial services fields, with the latter mostly clustered in fintech or innovation in financial services, Doyle says. The total employment figure was thrown off slightly by eight graduates taking the opportunity to pursue a Responsible Leadership Fellowship in South Africa, India, and other countries, Doyle says, taking them out of the job market for six months after graduation.
Often what attracts people to ESMT, Doyle says, is some sort of connection to Germany — “either language or history or industry. The country itself has a long history of small- and medium-size enterprises, so for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit this culture can be quite attractive,” he says, adding that most of the graduating class stays in Europe, with roughly 70-75% staying in Germany, and another 5-10% going elsewhere in Europe, depending on the year.
“We are a really small environment, so there’s a lot of focus on the individual student,” Doyle says. “A lot of schools say that, but there really is. Students and faculty have lunch together and there is an option for individual coaching as part of career services. Depending on when you are on campus and which classes are taking place, anywhere from 100-200 students are on campus, so it’s quite a small, entrepreneurial place.
“ESMT is not your typical school for finance, for example. Graduates do go into those fields, but it’s usually not a typical job. So anybody who’s willing to do something different, and take a personalized approach to business studies, would enjoy ESMT.”
ESMT lists an example of companies that have recruited the school’s Graduate MBAs over the last three years.
