Should you come to Tsinghua SEM IMBA's Program? (would I do it again?)

So, it appears that people searching for Tsinghua IMBA/MBA program actually come across this blog, which is pretty interesting because I thought I was hidden away from the rest of the world in a little corner on the Internet.

Anyway, I also realize that my posts about Tsinghua have been getting more and more negative, and will probably continue to do so. I don't intend of sugar coating anything for people who want to know what it's like to come to Tsinghua SEM. However, I thought it would be good to have an unbiased look at Tsinghua SEM.

1. Should you come to Tsinghua SEM?

You should NOT come here if you plan to go into investment banking or consulting, or maybe anything cool that MBAs usually do. Unless of course, you're incredibly fluent at Chinese, however, even then, as I've said before, top tier companies like Goldman/McKinsey do NOT recruit from here.

You should come here if you want to

i) Have a 2 year holiday in China and get to know what China is like from a semi-expat point of view.
ii) If you want to have a valid reason to learn Chinese.
iii) If you want a mainland Chinese girlfriend, or boyfriend, whatever floats your boat.
iv) If you want to be baller but in a cheap way.
v) If you really want to push yourself to explore new opportunities - entrepreneurship or niche careers that you would never have had thought about before.

Because.. because the CDC here is crap, I've been forced to explore possibilities that I never would have considered before. Which is actually a really good thing. So that's the silver lining of Tsinghua SEM's Career Developement Center. It's made me think about doing something different and forcing me to be more resourceful when looking for an internship/job.

Now, having said all that, how am I doing? Well, I'm waiting on internship replies - none which were the result of an excellent career service or a plethora of companies begging Tsinghua SEM MBAs to go for a summer internship.

But, the question is, did coming to Tsinghua give me any opportunities?

Yes. It did. By virtue of having the Tsinghua name, more general organizations (non-MBA recruiters) are open to meeting up with me. However, this is limited as in, there aren't that many non-MBA recruiting companies that you really want to work for (in terms of job scope and compensation). But that would differ from person to person... so if you really do want to come here, please do your research on what organizations you want to work for properly.

By coming to Tsinghua, almost overnight, you're given the halo of "China expert" in a minor sense. People who aren't extremely well versed will think that you are being taught by the best and brightest of China's acadamic world.

Which brings me to the next point...

2. Classes and professors.

In this second term, there are good professors that are worth attending. I'll list down their classes and names - where I can remember.

i) Gao Xudong - Strategic Management (he also teaches 1st semester)
ii) Dr Ingo Beyer - Practical Strategy Management (he's the head of McKinsey China)
iii) David Robb - Operations Management
iv) David Li - China in the Global Economy (incredible)

3. Wudaokou

Wudaokou is where Tsinghua University is. It is shit. As in, it's the shittiest place to live in. I have no idea whether any of my classmates actually enjoy staying in Wudaokou. As far as I know, it gets so bad, that once a week, we go down to town to get away from all of this. I repeat, coming to Tsinghua won't kill you, but staying in Wudaokou will...

4. Would I do it again?

Would I? Maybe not, maybe LBS/INSEAD would have been better. In terms of career, almost definitely. But then, on the other hand, who knows what lies on the road less travelled?

I would do it again for the chance to be in China. But I wouldn't do it again for the lack of basic job opportunities. I would do it again for learning Chinese and China. I wouldn't do it again to stay in Wudaokou.

I guess, like I did say before, coming here is a gamble. I guess now, it's time to see if the gamble pays off...