Hi everyone,

First, some good news. I just recently received offers from University of Manchester (UK) and HEC Montreal. I am also awaiting responses from York Schulich , UBC Sauder and Concordia. I'm having some trouble deciding among these schools.

Here is my background. I graduated from Software Engineering and I have been working in IT as a programmer-analyst for the last 4 years. Doing an MBA is definately a career change for me even if I decide to continue working in the software industry. My plan is to go into product management (so marketing), but time will tell. Therefore, I favor schools with longer programs with internships because I feel it would be difficult for me to find a job otherwise. However, the one-year program at HEC Montreal is so darn cheap that I may be crazy not to go. Also, if I study outside of Montreal, I'm would probably want to go back to Montreal to work afterwards.

I have provided some notes on these schools. Please help me choose!

University of Manchester
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- Decent international reputation and solid rankings in FT and Forbes
- Great international experience
- Love the curriculum structure --> internship + exchange program + international business project
- Ideal program length -> 18 months
- expensive tuition: around $52,500CAD, but has paid internship
- Bad reputation for teaching

HEC Montreal
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- Great reputation in Quebec, but relatively unknown internationally. Only appears on Forbes rankings because of low tuition fees -> high ROI.
- Program length: 12 months (very intensive from what I hear)
- Super cheap tuition for quebec students -> 6,500 CAD
- Good reputation for teaching
- A little concern about job prospects as it took a friend of mine over 6 months to find a job

Sauder
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- Good reputation in western part of Canada, but relatively unknown elsewhere. Appears in both rankings
- Tuition around $39,000 CAD, but has paid internship
- program length 15 months (includes internship)


Schulich
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- Good reputation Canada, but relatively unknown internationally. Appears in both rankings
- Tuition around $$48,000 CAD
- Ideal program length: 16 months (flexible)

Concordia
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- Good reputation only in Quebec
- tuition also very cheap for quebec students probably around $7,000-10,000 CAD
- Ideal program length: 16-20 months
- The big problem is that I did my undergraduate Software Engineering degree at this school