Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. The UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School Buzz Book is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting.
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The UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School Buzz Book Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. The UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School Buzz Book is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting. |
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The UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School Buzz Book Welcome to the first edition of Vault's UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School Buzz Book. In this new and unique guide, we publish extended excerpts and sample admissions essays from surveys of students and alumni from UCD Smurfit to bring you the inside scoop on its MBA program. The survey comments cover the following areas:
The guide is intended to serve as a complement to other references to business schools currently available that utilize school-reported data. Unlike those guides, Vault's Buzz Books (which also include the London Business School Buzz Book, Business School Buzz Book , Law School Buzz Book and College Buzz Book) are composed almost entirely of information provided directly to Vault from students and alumni.
We received comments from UCD Smurfit. We have included comments next to appropriate survey sections, offset with a different font and indented to be easily recognizable as school-provided comments. Corrections within the body of the comments are enclosed in brackets.
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Status: Alumnus/a, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2005-7/2006
Survey Submitted: March 2007
The process involves submitting an application form, a CV, GMAT score, two essays, two letters of reference and an interview. In an effort to focus on quality candidates, the class size was 39 compared to over 60 the previous year.
The school says: "An application form, a CV, three essays, university transcripts, a GMAT score, English language qualification if appropriate, submissions from two references and an interview are all required as part of the application process."
Academics: Students Speak
Status: Current student, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2006-Submit Date
Survey Submitted: February 2007
The classes are a good mixture of academic theory and discussion and examination of applied practice. The class size is 35, big enough to have a broad range of experience within the class but small enough to get individual attention from academic staff. The quality of the classes and professors was higher than I had experienced before--when filling in assessment forms, I invariably gave them a 4 or 5 on a 1 to 5 scale. The better professors within the business are allocated to the MBA programme.
There are a number of courses with visiting professors and this adds to the international dimension of the program. Over the year there are 16 core modules, six elective modules plus one language module. There is a choice of 26 courses for the electives, and the school makes particular effort to avoid timetable clashes. I had no problem enrolling on my first choices. Additionally, I took the option of completing three more modules on an audit or not-for-credit basis. Again this proved to be no problem, with both the academic and administrative staff being very supportive.
Employment Prospects: Students Speak
Status: Alumnus/a, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2002-8/2003
Survey Submitted: June 2006
In Ireland, the prospects are excellent. The school is recognized as the premier business school in the country. There is plenty of on-campus recruiting and the potential to build a strong network exists. Blue chip companies regularly visit and have employed graduates in the past. There is a good careers service and the opportunity to do a summer internship exists. McKinsey, GE, Proctor & Gamble, Ericsson, IBM, Accenture, E&Y all contain recent MBA graduates. In the broader scheme, because there are many other courses offered in the business school, all the blue chips present in Ireland will have recruited here at some stage in the past.
Quality of Life: Students Speak
Status: Current student, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 9/2006-Submit Date
Survey Submitted: February 2007
Quality of life is great. The school is in a very pleasant seaside suburb of Dublin, with good transport links. This part of the city doesn't really suffer the traffic congestion of other parts. On-campus accommodation is two years old, clean, well designed but relatively Spartan. On-campus accommodation staff are helpful and friendly. Dining is of reasonable quality and great value.
Library facilities have recently improved, but availability of rooms for study groups is poor and needs improvement. The neighborhood is very much residential with parks and beaches nearby. Crime and personal safety are not an issue. With the graduate school separate from the main campus (one and a half kilometers away) there is a pleasantly quiet atmosphere with a slightly mature air to the place.
Social Life: Students Speak
Status: Current student, full-time
Dates of Enrollment: 8/2006-Submit Date
Survey Submitted: February 2007
The social life in a Smurfit MBA is fantastic. There's always something to do, always someone organizing a ladies dinner out or a trip to see a rugby match at Lansdowne Road or Gaelic football at Croke Park. End-of-term parties are a must attend event. Cultural events, such as the theatre and tour of the Dail (Irish parliament), have also been organized. Much of this depends on class initiative. There are a small number of local pubs, and the favorite seems to change with the term.
Dating is difficult on this MBA because of its intensity, and the small class size is not conducive to dating anyone else in the course--you would be the subject of all the gossip. A soccer club, golf club, sailing club and rugby club are popular ways to socialize and get some exercise at the same time. The best splurge restraint in Blackrock is Chi for Asian cuisine and outstanding service. The people in the MBA really are what make the experience great, though, and Smurfit tends to attract some good ones. We are more competitive as a class than we are with each other, and the diversity lends itself to a great group dynamic.
