HEC Paris (reviews)

I have met the most competent and diverse batch in this school. These people not only thrive on their own but also makes sure that you are doing it with them. The professors will take your had and walk you through all milestones and make sure you are not left behind. I have found their extracurriculars extremely engaging. There was always a room to have social life after academic life. The only hindrance is the location of the school, it is slightly outside city and living in city is expensive.

Very international and interesting place to be and opens a lot of opportunities, however the administration is very french and facilities are subpar (gym, classrooms) meaning the academic affairs is pretty much useless and lastly we are graded on a curve which can create a toxic environment because of the competition. With that being said the pros outweighs the cons by far.

The school is very international indeed, we have courses with international students and share things with them within the extra academic life (in the social clubs especially). We have great career prospects if we prepare ourselves well – however, the global curriculum is still very finance-oriented, which is a pity for other interesting domains of the company world, which does not rely on finance only. The social clubs are good practice for the management and for now, are quite independent.

HEC Paris is really a nice place to do a master’s in business. Many classes are useful and interesting (corporate finance, financial accounting, contract law…), some are less – but the curriculum is to be reviewed in the year to come. Regarding the student life, it is incredible, with about 130 clubs, lots of great parties with even greater people. The Jouy campus offers a lot of opportunities to do sports, and you can breathe fresh air every day. HEC also helps a great deal to find an internship or a job.

There are so many opportunities that lots of students just get lost choosing what to do. That in itself is not bad, but there could be more counselling to help you decide.
One concerning point, however, is the lack of difficulty of the lessons. You’d think that after such a gruesome entry exam, the level of the courses would be super high… Far from it. I just aced my last exam with five hours of preparation and a bunch of middle-school level mathematics. Not stimulating enough.

About my programme I would say it is very international and flexible: we have the opportunity to choose exactly the courses we want. But at the same time, the frame of the campus is crucial in students’ life and enable us to create friendships.

I came into HEC with a lot of expectations. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the word. I completed my masters in 2020. During the course of the Masters, you can go on exchange with other universities which was probably the only positive

While HEC’s MBA is highly selective, I really enjoy the type of people HEC’s selects to make sure everybody gets the best out of their MBA experience and networking opportunities. Not only it’s an incredibly diverse pool of people (~60 nationalities) but most importantly they make sure to let in friendly empathic and curious people.