Singapore Business School versus. The rest of the world

Amidst the furor of the slew of advertisments by foreign agencies hired by Singapore's very own National University of Singapore (NUS), about Singapore Business School, i can't help but provide my two cents worth. By now, i am sure everyone has seen the ads.

The power of advertising is that phenomenal. You have to give credit to the brains behind the ads. Afterall, it provided a talking point among a bunch of Singaporeans. They get talked about via tv (through their ads), through papers (i vaguely recall The Straits Times wrote about the chuckles and dismay over the ads), through blogs (you can find a lot of them at tomorrow.sg), through podcasts (the infamous Mr Brown show). The ad company were pushing for airtime they have paid for, and in return they are widely talked about. That is the power of media. And with that, there's an increased in exposure for the ad as well as NUS / Singapore Business School.

I've been thinking about where i should do my MBA for some time. I've considered the common US Universities like Stanford, Berkeley, UChicago, Northwestern, Upenn, etc. Or even back to my alma mater : Purdue. Or even back closer to home : UCLA or SC.

I've moved back to Singapore for about five years. I still consider US very much where my home is. But so does Singapore. And you know what... because of the coverage of the media, i have sat up to think, and maybe i will consider Singapore Business School. Afterall, it's Top 30 for their Executive MBA programs. I can stick with everyone i love back in Singapore, while finishing up school. Besides, comparatively, the expenses are like almost a quarter or one-fifth of the fees i will have to pay back in LA.

I guess i'll have to decide...