International students at top MBAs

[Anonymous]

I'm in my late 20s and contemplating applying to business school. One thing I've noticed is that all the the schools I'm looking at have a 30%+ international student body. My boarding school and college had around 10% international students and that seemed like a perfect amount. I don't get it but programs seem to bragging about how many international students they have. Can anyone who got an MBA in the last year speak to how it affects the culture?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my late 20s and contemplating applying to business school. One thing I've noticed is that all the the schools I'm looking at have a 30%+ international student body. My boarding school and college had around 10% international students and that seemed like a perfect amount. I don't get it but programs seem to bragging about how many international students they have. Can anyone who got an MBA in the last year speak to how it affects the culture?

I can tell you that companies that hire h1bs have a culture of no risk taking. Everyone conforms and never disagrees. People are desperate for a green card.

Morale sucks and quality goes way down

And usually if you look for why someone would make a stupid decision like this , you will find a green MBA grad pushing to out source .

[Anonymous]

+1000. Went to a very competitive, professional degree program at a university that started taking a huge amount of internationals from same area a few years ago. Would NOT do it again- very quiet group but sneaky, mostly spoke native language to each other during tests & had many tech gadgets. (One prof had us bring IDs & checked them before test & had us sign statements, like the SAT does) Program then started hiring professors from the same area, so racism against the American students only increased.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1000. Went to a very competitive, professional degree program at a university that started taking a huge amount of internationals from same area a few years ago. Would NOT do it again- very quiet group but sneaky, mostly spoke native language to each other during tests & had many tech gadgets. (One prof had us bring IDs & checked them before test & had us sign statements, like the SAT does) Program then started hiring professors from the same area, so racism against the American students only increased.

Are you implying that they were cheating?

[Anonymous]

Oh good lord, don’t listen to PPs.

Look up the top programs in the world, and you’ll consistently see a meaningful percentage of internationals. It’s because companies like the fact that students experience diverse cultures, it’s because the programs are often literally global (multiple campuses), and it’s because it plays to the rankings of the school positively.

Look at Kellogg, Wharton, Stanford, Harvard, Uchicago, Sloan, etc - all of whom have remained top tier universities for decades and continue to attract top candidates from across he globe. Go read the employment reports (which by the way show no bias towards h1bs, or preferential treatment to non Americans in salary, bonus, etc), read the incoming class profiles.

Then ask yourself: what’s more likely, the above explanation around diversity, or all the schools are too blind to see the supposed massive cheating and racism (yet somehow continue to recruit the best and brightest, who apparently, despite being bright are not capable of seeing this “truth??).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1000. Went to a very competitive, professional degree program at a university that started taking a huge amount of internationals from same area a few years ago. Would NOT do it again- very quiet group but sneaky, mostly spoke native language to each other during tests & had many tech gadgets. (One prof had us bring IDs & checked them before test & had us sign statements, like the SAT does) Program then started hiring professors from the same area, so racism against the American students only increased.

Are you implying that they were cheating?

Rich Chinese kids do.

[Anonymous]

I get whyit seems like racism but if you have taughtor studied abroad in a variety of countries many havevery different ideas about what is cheating.

[Anonymous]

internationals are effectively subsidizing your tuition while having zero prospects for employment upon graduation. check your racism and privilege when you ask how it affects the culture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:internationals are effectively subsidizing your tuition while having zero prospects for employment upon graduation. check your racism and privilege when you ask how it affects the culture

Or, alternatively, look up the employment reports before making shit up?

As an example from University of Chicago, % of students reporting full time job offers at graduation:

US Citizens/Permanent Residents 91.4%
International Graduates 89.3%

Figures are about 96% within 3 mo of graduation.

[Anonymous]

I was an international student in an American grad school program, not MBA, and let me tell you, we danced rings around the American students - they knew a lot less on the subject matter and were definitely not as smart. Universities usually have higher standards of admission for foreigners, because they are not familiar with foreign universities and are afraid of admitting weak students, so they err the other way.

It works the same way in other countries, OP. One of my native countries is opening itself more and more to international students, and is creating entire degrees in English to attract them.

This is globalism in the best sense of the term. Every country with means wants to attract the smartest and most capable young people.

I don't know where your xenophobia comes from. Multiculturalism is a good thing. My parents are from different countries, they didn't speak the same language when they met. We have lived in many different countries.

[Anonymous]

The students from the former British commonwealth countries like India often spoke and wrote better English than the Americans. It was humbling to have a foreigner correcting our writing in our group papers!

Most international students were fine and fun. Some very competitive and not so friendly but so we're some of the American kids.