AUC
I attended the Wharton information session at the old AUC campus (which is gorgeous!) downtown Cairo last week. Solid turnout of around 30 or 40 prospective students – some more Wharton material than others! It was hosted by Jacqueline Zavitz, Senior Associate Director of Admissions and Mauro Guillen, the Director of the Lauder Institute (in town for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women project).
These info sessions are really great way to help decide which school is the right fit for you. They offer insights into the softer aspects of the various MBA programs; the schools’ cultures.
Overall the impression Wharton left matched its reputation: Serious, rigorous, finance heavy (although they pushed their entrepreneurial credentials too). The school’s size (they don’t come any bigger than Wharton) was another key point (lots of electives to choose from but you’re obviously not going to know everyone’s name at the end of the program). And its location was brought up (a tad defensively maybe) – the pitch: the intimacy of a mid-size, culturally vibrant city that’s only an hour away from NY (the real deal).
Two amiable alums came along to take some questions; Patrick Gaffney and Sharif (I think) and both were impressive. Patrick is a VP, Equity Research at EFG-Hermes and Sharif is a partner in a pharmaceuticals distribution company (he previously worked pharma I-banking at Citi post-Wharton). Both talked about the rigor of the program and the strength of the alumni network and the brand.
Mauro spoke at length about the Lauder Institute which is a great sounding program for the more internationally oriented MBA prospects. You are required to have intermediate knowledge of a foreign language (there’s a choice of 8 or 9 I think) to be accepted and should be fluent on graduating. The exception is if your choice is Arabic in which case they’re flexible on your current level (and the fluent on graduation expectation) – there simply aren’t enough applicants who speak the language well enough to make up numbers. Chinese, obviously, was one of the more popular languages. You are expected to work on a project on your second year that takes you out in the field where you can put the language to use doing real work. The institute was funded by the Leonard Lauder (Estee’s son) a Wharton grad in 1986 and was ahead of its time in taking a more international outlook amongst the leading B-schools. Mauro also mentioned that every student in the Lauder program (there are around 60 a year) gets some kind of financial assistance.
Jacqueline also mentioned that there were five students admitted that were on the Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Fellowship program (which is great when you consider its only its first year). There were also two representatives from AMIDEAST who gave a short talk on the Onsi Sawiris Scholarships available for Egyptian applicants. They were especially keen on encouraging female applicants. I met Will Haney and one of the scholarship recipients briefly at the end of the session. Two really vital programs that fund smart, ambitious kids from the Middle East. I hope we see a lot more of this type of thing across the region. One thing to note on the Sawiris scholarships is that they are now takings applications for those looking to start their MBAs in 2010, so forward planning is essential.
