05.29.08 by Bärbel Schwerteger

ESMT: Bizarre Numbers

The salary figures from a survey of the organizer of MBA fairs, QS TopMBA, only recently caused some raised eyebrows. According to this survey, grads of the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin earn the highest salaries. At $116,800 USD they reportedly received not only more than Insead grads, but also exceeded Harvard grads. (see " Higher salaries in spite of crisis")

Now a new ranking by the Mexican economics magazine Expansión is again casting doubt on the schools’ calculations. In the magazine, the ESMT is among the schools with the toughest selection process (the number of applicants accepted). Subsequently, only eight percent of applicants are accepted to the ESMT. In contrast, Harvard accepts 14 percent and IMD even 21 percent. More selective than the ESMT are only Stanford (six percent) and Berkeley (seven percent). Thus according to the statistics, it was significantly more difficult to receive a place at the ESMT than at most of the international top schools.

Did the ESMT, whose sponsor companies include 25 of the largest companies in Germany, fudge its numbers? “As a matter of principle, we do not release any information regarding the number of full-time MBA applicants,” was the reply from the school. After being confronted with the ranking, the following response was given: “We gave the number of 400 applications to Expansión. This concerns the entrance level of an application process which consists of six levels in total and, at the conclusion of which, the number of accepted applicants was 31.”

In plain English it means this: The ESMT evidently has counted all inquiries - regardless of whether the candidates meet the admission criteria at all. And that could really be a lot of applications. Finally, word has gotten out all the way to India or China that at the ESMT every student receives a base scholarship. It is general protocol to only count the number of serious applicants that in reality would also be eligible for acceptance.

The ESMT was also quite imaginative when it came to data regarding their faculty. According to its input in the Expansión ranking, all professors have a PhD and 85 percent are international. But a glance at the ESMT website proves otherwise. From the 22-member faculty shown, eleven professors are German. Even if the oddly-named “Faculty Professional” category isn’t included, just under one-third of the staff is still German.

With this kind of “creative calculating” it’s no wonder that ESMT grads also exceed nearly all top schools in the new ranking with the highest salaries. Only salaries from IMD and Ashridge are higher. Verifying this isn’t possible because when it comes to the media the ESMT is notably tight-lipped and doesn’t allow a single interview with its MBA students. After requesting an interview with one of the many Indian students, the reply was: “Unfortunately our students are not available for an interview.”

Thus the following applies for all foreign students: Be wary of the statistics ESMT provides.

The ESMT was founded in 2002 by 25 German companies and is located in Berlin. The ESMT is a state-recognized private economics university and as of yet does not hold any international accreditation through AACSB, Equis or Amba.

www.esmt.org