Want Feedback On Sasin Graduate Institute Of Business

[lingyai]

Has anybody had experience or know people that have received their MBA from Sasin Graduate Institute of Business (Chula). I am mostly interested in Sasin, but would like to know also about Thammasat or other MBA programs.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[somchai jones]

Has anybody had experience or know people that have received their MBA from Sasin Graduate Institute of Business (Chula). I am mostly interested in Sasin, but would like to know also about Thammasat or other MBA programs.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Several years ago, we printed a feature on Sasin in 'Study Asia' an international student magazine I managed.

I visited the institute and was very impressed with it's facilities, not least the very comfortable accomodation for foreign students.

On the academic side, the programs are of course conducted in English and the MBA is repeatedly found in a high position in various published rankings of Asia's Top MBAs.

Unfortunately, I don't know a lot about the Thammasat MBA but all I would say is that next to Chula, Thamasat is the most prestigious Thai public university.

Hope this helps a little.

[steveromagnino]

Sasin would be considered Thailand's premier business masters degree, on account of a few factors: - the price to study is so high as to weed out non- rich family type people and this translates into a close knit network that proves very useful later on, there are some of marketing's finest profs at NW (and some big hitters in other dsciplines) and they come out to THailand to teach in blocks.

The problems are that since each prof might be here for say 2 weeks, you learn a lot, but there is no time for questions or the like, and American ideas of marketing aren't always applicable for instance to Thailand; although with Wang, Schultz etc (who I understand are still at NW) they do probably offer about as much as one could reasonably expect from any single university in the world. Unlike an MBA in NZ, many of the students are mid - late 20s, rather than 30s senior management, but that I think is common for MBA around the world, and NZ is the exception.

Thammasaht has a good marketing program if you are interested in FMCG marketing, but it is hopeless for services marketing and I know enough grads of that program to know that they learn a lot but it is P&G style marketing, and not up to scratch IMHO on the services side.

ABAC, Mahidol and others have programs in management, and some are good while others are hmmmm, however Sasin rates highest I would say of the programs in Thailand for general MBA. Also bear in mind it is full time, that may have some bearing for you.

[britainmal]

Can a foreigner with an MBA from Thailand get a good paying job working for a Corporation?

[steveromagnino]

Can a foreigner with an MBA from Thailand get a good paying job working for a Corporation?

It would probably help, but more so the other students might know of good jobs that you could get as a result; I recently worked with Sasin regarding a project of theirs and on of the staff was foreign American who was a graduate of Sasin I think? Cannot recall exactly. He was Chinese though, so had picked up a large amount of Thai within about 2-3 months, if you could get at least some language down, plus had the degree and foreign work experience, I think getting a job here would not be so hard.

Mind you, it is who you know, so that success would depend on your fellow students and staff more than your grades.

[thedude]

i think the Sasin course is tied up the the Wharton Business School, so quality is not an issue, and as far as i'm aware, its conducted in English.

i have a friend with a Sasin MBA, he works at ABN Amro, and before that with an investment house. but i think that's because he comes from a branded Thai Chinese family with extensive business network, the Sasin MBA just reinforces his status rather makes it. i think its true that Sasin makes entry prohibitively expensive exept for those who are rich and well connected anyway, so its elitism makes it elite.

Sasin alumni are a veritable whos who of Thai society, i recall seeing in some hi-so magazine an article featuring a number of prominant Sasin graduates.

[NordicMan]

Has anybody had experience or know people that have received their MBA from Sasin Graduate Institute of Business (Chula). I am mostly interested in Sasin, but would like to know also about Thammasat or other MBA programs.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

As far as i know, Sasin is not featured on any of the three most common rankings of MBA (FT, BW, Economist). Might want to doble check though. if you're purely looking for an MBA with high reputation, I would go somewhere else.

Sasin does give you an opoprtunity to stay in thailand, helps you generate a thai network, gives you the opportunity to learn thai (since you're there).

I'm not convinced of the quality of teachings, but I have not been there. It is affiliated with Wharton, but that doesn't mean it carries Wharton standards. I did my MSc at a very well known university and several of my teachers were guest teaching at other universities. In their opinion, guest teaching is clearly lower quality than resident teaching. I'm doing my MBA part time at another top university now, but haven't asked my new teachers for opinion on same subject.

You need to decide what are the key criteria for your selection of university. If you're just looking for the most well-known university, with the aim of landing as high paid job as possible in consulting or investment banking, Sasin is probably not your top choice.

nm

[somchai jones]

Has anybody had experience or know people that have received their MBA from Sasin Graduate Institute of Business (Chula). I am mostly interested in Sasin, but would like to know also about Thammasat or other MBA programs.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

As far as i know, Sasin is not featured on any of the three most common rankings of MBA (FT, BW, Economist). Might want to doble check though. if you're purely looking for an MBA with high reputation, I would go somewhere else.

Sasin does give you an opoprtunity to stay in thailand, helps you generate a thai network, gives you the opportunity to learn thai (since you're there).

I'm not convinced of the quality of teachings, but I have not been there. It is affiliated with Wharton, but that doesn't mean it carries Wharton standards. I did my MSc at a very well known university and several of my teachers were guest teaching at other universities. In their opinion, guest teaching is clearly lower quality than resident teaching. I'm doing my MBA part time at another top university now, but haven't asked my new teachers for opinion on same subject.

You need to decide what are the key criteria for your selection of university. If you're just looking for the most well-known university, with the aim of landing as high paid job as possible in consulting or investment banking, Sasin is probably not your top choice.

nm

Sasin isn't featured in the global rankings but is consistently featured in the Asian rankings.

So, it really depends on how much location matters.

If you need to/want to stay in Thailand, then Sasin is a good choice.

Slightly further afield but still in the region, you may want to look into the MBAs on offer in Hong Kong and Singapore.

[johnnyk]

good friend of mine did an mba at sasin and thought it was excellent. he finished about 2 years ago.

he was in his mid-40s when he enrolled, had run his own successful business in canada for 15 years and had a few clues.

it does have some affiliation with wharton and if i remember right he said it had to do with curriculum and there were visiting profs from wharton.

[britainmal]

i have a friend with a Sasin MBA, he works at ABN Amro, and before that with an investment house. but i think that's because he comes from a branded Thai Chinese family with extensive business network

I am talking about a foreigner of non-Thai or Asian descent.

[NordicMan]

Has anybody had experience or know people that have received their MBA from Sasin Graduate Institute of Business (Chula). I am mostly interested in Sasin, but would like to know also about Thammasat or other MBA programs.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

As far as i know, Sasin is not featured on any of the three most common rankings of MBA (FT, BW, Economist). Might want to doble check though. if you're purely looking for an MBA with high reputation, I would go somewhere else.

Sasin does give you an opoprtunity to stay in thailand, helps you generate a thai network, gives you the opportunity to learn thai (since you're there).

I'm not convinced of the quality of teachings, but I have not been there. It is affiliated with Wharton, but that doesn't mean it carries Wharton standards. I did my MSc at a very well known university and several of my teachers were guest teaching at other universities. In their opinion, guest teaching is clearly lower quality than resident teaching. I'm doing my MBA part time at another top university now, but haven't asked my new teachers for opinion on same subject.

You need to decide what are the key criteria for your selection of university. If you're just looking for the most well-known university, with the aim of landing as high paid job as possible in consulting or investment banking, Sasin is probably not your top choice.

nm

Sasin isn't featured in the global rankings but is consistently featured in the Asian rankings.

So, it really depends on how much location matters.

If you need to/want to stay in Thailand, then Sasin is a good choice.

Slightly further afield but still in the region, you may want to look into the MBAs on offer in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Even if you want to stay/work in Thailand, it may not be your best choice. The question would be, will the better reputation of another university be more important than the thai network and thai language skills you have obtained at Sasin? If you are able to get into a top-20 MBA, will the additional reputation of that overcome the benefits of Sasin, while looking for a job in Bangkok? I would assume so. If your end objective is to work in Bangkok, and you are not able to get into a top university, rather somewhere in the middle of the rankings, then perhaps Sasin would be a better choice.

If you enter a two-year mba somewhere else (or any mba program which have an internship component), you may be able to secure your 2-3 month internship in Bangkok. This could give you both a top name on your cv, and some experience and network in thailand.

again, it goes back to your objectives - what do you want to do after your mba. what are your options - can you be accepted into a top mba program, and can you finance it?

If you spend US$120k for two years at e.g. Carnegie Mellon (including living costs), you may not be able to afford working in Thailand afterwards. To repay your student debt, you may be forced to work in a high-wage country. However, your chances of getting a high paid job will be higher than if you go to Sasin.

-nm

[steveromagnino]

If you enter a two-year mba somewhere else (or any mba program which have an internship component), you may be able to secure your 2-3 month internship in Bangkok. This could give you both a top name on your cv, and some experience and network in thailand.

again, it goes back to your objectives - what do you want to do after your mba. what are your options - can you be accepted into a top mba program, and can you finance it?

If you spend US$120k for two years at e.g. Carnegie Mellon (including living costs), you may not be able to afford working in Thailand afterwards. To repay your student debt, you may be forced to work in a high-wage country. However, your chances of getting a high paid job will be higher than if you go to Sasin.

-nm

I don't think it is too easy therefore to write a 'one size fits all' advice. One point about American Business Schools, is that at least for a few of the Thai graduates I have met, then didn't have very realistic ideas about how the middle or lower classes think here; the set of skills they had learned (which admittedly got them into the top consulting firms, I Banks and so on) were very specialist and extremely useful in America and developed markets, but they didn't really know where to start here. I cannot guarantee that Sasin is much better, except in so far as they are local, looking at least at some local cases, and this helps.

Another friend of mine from New Zealand who did a post grad study of some sort at Harvard had the same complaint....it was about strategy and he was just blown away by how clever the rest of the class were (and this is an expert in his area of CRM). However, after 2 weeks, he wanted to know how to implement all the things he was learning, and the comment was very much, that's another subject - in small businesses and less developed markets it could not be like that because the same guy who develops the strategy also has to implement it and probably be doing a million and one other things as well.

Coincidentally the same friend worked in the UK for some time, and complained of the same thing; his skill set as a generalist was not valued as much there, because large companies can afford experts at various things, they don't need generalists. So now he is making big money in Singapore, Australia and NZ, which are smaller and therefore more suited to generalists.

For a foreigner, you would have to be 100% sure that you were going to work in Asia and Thailand with a Sasin degree; however it would directly open contacts that would not be otherwise available. If you want to know whether say top choice of MBAs McKinsey would prefer a foreign degree or Sasin, you should just call them (bearing in mind that the office he is arguably not one of McKinsey's success stories).

In terms of cost difference, Sasin is significantly cheaper; there are a few other joint university programs in specialist areas such as the USF masters in finance at ABAC, but you miss out on the networking bit to some degree then.

Sasin alumni are quite active as well.

My big concern with doing an MBA in USA or here or anywhere really would be based on the average student ages... harvard is 27, which is on the older side nowadays, but it is still mighty young. Exactly what do most of these people know who are aged under 27? I say this as a arrogant wunderkid of a successful PLC who was encouraged to do an MBA at age 25 (as I had graduated at age 20)... I can honestly say now, that I knew not that much at that age. If you can get in the next age group up, well that is going to help. And definitely try to avoid any study at universities where average age is 25 or less; those people are going to be hopeless networking. You ideally would want to be around CEOs, CFOs, MDs, etc - you might get that in some of the classes at Sasin perhaps, I'd suggest you ask them directly about this.

[gurkle]

I wouldn't recommend it unless you were Thai or had significant family connections here. I have a few friends that graduated Sasin who benefited from the experience, but they are all Thai.

Not worth betting your life on a whim (i.e. you really liked your last vacation in Thailand). The tuition rates are pretty expensive, similar to those of the US. It would take many years to make it up on a Thai salary. A lot of the Sasin graduates I know were sponsored by their companies; otherwise, it wouldn't have made sense cost-wise.

Also, it doesn't necessarily help you get a job here. The irony is that a lot of the Sasin graduates I know just went back to their family business afterwards. If you weren't even a Thai citizen, it would be that much harder to get a job here. Take a look at the successful expat executives living here and you'll probably find that they mostly studied overseas. Thais hire expensive non-citizens for a different Western viewpoint, not because they offer the same knowledge that a less-expensive Thai citizen can already offer.

Edited February 11, 2006 by gurkle