Cranfield School of Management

jossnjuice

hi folks

am just looking into doing a masters in supply chain managaement in Cranfield, as this is the primary degree that i have almost completed.

could anybody steer me in the right direction, as regards experiences etc that they have had, or storys they have heard as regards how good the school is??

another thing that i have heard is that there is extraordinary waiting lists and i would more than likely not be able to commence the masters until sept 2011.

any feedback in general about cranfield, or milton keynes, the surrounding area would be greatley appreciated.

Max001

Friend of mine, a 'city' high flyer, did her masters at Cranfield and I only heard good things about the school. I was based in GB for some of my career and similarly, would have heard only good things via colleagues, however no direct experience myself. Last time I was in M.Keynes was several years ago and its an odd place, as from memory, was a planned 'new town' built on a green field site. Best thing would be to pop over for a couple of days and see what you think. My impressions'd be kinda subjective obviously and likely different from you own

jossnjuice

thanks max

according to cranfields website, MK is one of the fastest growing citys in europe??? whats your standpoint on that??

any idea on jobs after?? would it make a good addition on the CV having gone to " a premier " college for the masters??

Cranfield has an excellent (and still growing) rep for its business courses.

I've been some of their events and found the staff I met really excellent.

Max001

As regards the worth of a Cranfield quali vs others, as an HR guy, I'd tend to rate Cranfield alongside the 'red brick' or second rank of UK unis behind Oxbridge, such as Manchester (my alma mater), St Andrews, Bristol etc etc If I saw it on a CV, it'd mean browie points! In Irish terms, loosely on a par with Trinity.

Honestly, I found MK a bit soul-less cause it wasn't designed around a traditional main street/market street same as other older towns. But the surrounding area is a nice one, mostly green belt (from memory). It has a covered 'main street'. Wikipedia sums it up fairly well actually. The fact its just off the M1 is handy. It was designed to be able to scale upwards, which I think is why its so spread out and doesn't have the kind of commercial/cultural mix that traditional towns have. Its a gridwork of dual carriageways linked by round abouts which is novel. Lotsa green spaces and trees all over the place so it feels more suburban than urban.

Bottom line, its an okay place to live. Handy for London, but my impression was (as a visitor only) that you couldn't exactly walk between places. Its more of a US car/cab place if you get my drift. No idea what public transport is like around the town. Good I'd imagine.

Would I live there? For a short time, yes. I prefer compact places you can walk around like Manchester/London/Manhattan and even Cork where I am for a while now, lol. You see, its subjective.

jossnjuice

bump

StephenM_smc

Have you sent in an application yet? I applied in Jan 2009 for a course starting September/October 2009, and didn't get in. I instead applied for September/October 2010 and got accepted. Meanwhile I had no problems applying to an Irish university for entry in 2009.

One of the research area's for Cranfield is Risk and Resilience in the Supply Chain, and I would expect a particular focus in that masters programmes. If you have ever read any texts by Martin Christopher, he is based at Cranfield. He has also co-authored Marketing Logistics texts (one along side Helen Peck).

I would recommend going over there for an open day, I managed to get an interesting tour around some of MK when on a bus to the campus, and saw more roundabouts than I could count! It was pointed out that the campus is away from everything and is fairly secluded, but they expect you to be studying/working instead of doing anything else while there.

The School of Engineering put on an excellent preview day that included a chance to speak with the course directors on a one to one basis for each person attending. It was limited in places so it didn't have the generic atmosphere of a normal open day. I am not sure if the School of Management do the same however.