anoopkiitr  : I got Admit from ISB, admit + partial schol from Cornell, any views of experienced people where shall I go? I have to settle surely in India but want to see other countries and their corporate before that. Want to go in IT either in consultancy or marketing (IT Development has been my 5.5 yrs of exp)

Naniboy : To be honest, you are comparing apples to oranges in comparing a Top US School to IIM or ISB. People can rationalize anyway they want but the bottomline is that the experience (student diversity, experiences, faculty expertise), career options etc are very different at the two. Even if you want to work in India, a Top US MBA would be a better bet anyday.

OxfordStud  : Vini30, You have raised a very good question here. Which B-Schools outsie India would hold more value in India than IIMs (i think ISB is a good school, but would need more time to establish itself as a brand). Well the standard answer would be ofcourse Harvard/Stanford/Wharton/Columbia and Michigan and even LBS (not so much as INSEAD - although INSEAD is ranked above LBS) would get you good brand mileage in India. However not all top 15 schools can give you brand mileage in India.
         But you should not just limit the question to just brand mileage, you should also look at which business schools would give you international contacts and business networks (something that even IIMs and ISB would struggle to provide - that's why you see ppl going for second MBAs). The whole world is moving towards a globalized economy. There would be a very strong focus on interacting and dealing with foreign clients, companies and countries. Therefore having an international focus and contacts is of paramount importance.

scjp2003  : Vini, These are my views

Advantage of ISB over IIM
1.better faculty
2.better facilities
3.Diverse mix of students
4.One year MBA
5.Less competitive to get in
6.Better placement(Now a days)
7.Offers lateral placements

Advantage of IIM over ISB
1.Less fees
2.Better reputation in india
3.Full time faculty(in ISB ,most of the stellar faculty is visitor faculty)

If one sees from the perspective of placements ,ISB shines .
If one sees from perspective of reputation in INDIA , IIMs shines .
A paradox :-)

Reason to study at ISB if you can afford high fees
1. Don't have extra one year to devote for 2 year MBA
2. Can't find time to prepare for competitive exam like CAT where acceptance rate is 1 %.( I wrote this becoz still IIM has better brand value than ISB .Though ISB has great potential to be best school in coming years.
3.Want to study in more mature age group(average 27)

One can compare quality of students in IIMs and ISB . Most of the students(60%) in IIMs are freshers.They come from very competitive pool (selected out of 1.5 lakh students).However, In ISB ,most of students have work experience (95% of class) . The average GMAT score is 690;Almost equal to top schools . So students there are not less than any others as far as analytical and logical skills are concerned. Though the acceptance rate in ISB is quite high (20%) as compared to IIMs; it equals to acceptance rate in top US schools

Advantage of US schools(top 20) over India schools(ISB and IIMs)

1.Better reputation
2.Better diversity
3.Better placements

Reaons for not going to top US schools(top 20) over India schools(ISB and IIMs)
1. Not for people who can not stay outside india because of personal reasons
2.Can't afford high fees and want to settle back in india ( in this case Return on inverstment will be very low )

I don't think getting a job in INDIA after doing MBA from top 20 schools will be a problem. With a some efforts,one can easily get a job .But ROI will be low.

Study in top ranking US schools if you can .It will definitely benefit you in long run.ISB is an excellent school but it wil take some more years to be included in top ranking schools. I think ISB should include atleast full tution fee scholarship to top 10% students to attract better pool.

Metal (metal_rulz) : I agree with scjp for the most part...but with CAT and GRE in the mix..the acceptance rate for this year's ISB class would be close to 5-7 %.
         If you are getting ur MBA degree from a US top-20 school..its highly imperative that you stay back to pay out your loans and then once thats done ...start building your savings a/c. After about 4-5 years ..the options of going back to India is perfectly viable.

biharibabu (atewari2)  :

See my problem with IIMs or for that matter most of the schools in India (except ISB) that they don't have much class variety and the class is filled with nerds. They are smart people in fact brilliant more often than not but not with enough experience (most of them are fresh out of college) that you could learn from their experience. So the teaching or learning at these schools is only from the professors.
      Also the degrees from the B-schools in India provide very little leverage outside of India and you can't count on getting a good job outside of India (unless you got it straight through campus). IEven then I would doubt the quality of the jobs. I know a lot of guys from IIM who came here and are working on very menial and routine jobs in US which I definitely wouldn't want to do if I went to IIMs. Also you will have a very hard time finding a job on your own with companies in US which I went through when my wife was trying to get a job in US after she moved here (with 4 years of experience). You won't get the quality of jobs that you are used to getting in India.
      This might be case by case basis but I lost respect for IIMs after I saw a number of guys from India trying to do a second MBA from the top-10/15 schools in US. So sitting in India you might think that IIMs are a great global brand bu they are not even close, and very few companies know them and you will never get as much leverage (again outside of India)
      I can't talk much about ISB either (don't know enough). But with all the top-10/15 schools in US you learn from your peers more than what you learn from the professors. because of the diversity of the class and interacting with people from different backgrounds and countries. and the learning is much more varied than just bookisn learning.
       So if you never want to get out of India and you are sure that you are going to stay there go with either IIM or ISB I would in fact say IIMs would be better. But if you have even a slightest chance that you might want to work outside India go with a US school.

vini30  : An eye-opener post tewaribabu. Thanks a bunch for the same. Would you be able to throw some light on the job prospects (kind of job, salaries, etc) for someone who chooses to come back to India after 5-6 years of work exp in US? How will his job prospects be as compared to someone who chose to garduate from ISB or say IIM PGPX?

biharibabu (atewari2)  : That I don't know for sure but I can't imagine it being not comparable. one thing is for sure that you are not going to get the $$ salary converted in Rupees. that you should be mentally prepared for. :)Also 5-6 years post MBA will also depend a lot on what kind of job you did after your MBA, what kind of a job you are seeking. what connections you have had and what was your luck when you got the first job in India. if you have good experience you can get a pretty good bargain out there. that will be totally upto you.

vini30  : Frankly speaking, i do not want to take the risk of coming back to india after doing an MBA abroad. In view of the above, can I consider colleges like UNC or say INSEAD/IMD/HEC. I guess colleges in top 10-12 should be pretty safe.

biharibabu (atewari2)  : UNC is a good school too. I don't know enough about the European schools to comment on post MBA chances. Anyways I am not a fan of 1 year MBAs you don't get to do internship and if you want to change your careers like me. It's hard to do without an internship. Another problem i see and often discussed with my friends is that unlike going to school in US where you will most probably get a job and the work visa for US. But with European schools you are bound to the country you go to then again and you will have to be looking in from outside to the countries you want to go work in. That's the biggest disadvantage I see for non-Europeans to go to these schools and i don't know enough about their visa process to tell you either ways. May be somebody else can chime in here about that.
      I haven't heard about anybody who has gone to a top-50 school in MBA/MS and had to go back to India because he couldn't find a job. people have gone back because of layoffs and out of choice but none who studied here. atleast not that i know of. obviously if you go to Duke/Darden you get a better placement than UNC. UNC is kind of regional but Duke has a better brand name.