<i>'I was struck by the calibre of the faculty'</i>

Julian Keens, 36, is doing an MBA at Rotterdam School of Management (RSM). He was formerly a project manager for clinical drug development with GlaxoSmithkline

I decided to do an MBA abroad for three reasons: I fancied spending some time on the continent; it would have cost me twice as much to live in London and go to London Business School; RSM is ranked in the top 6 in Europe, and rankings are important.

I intend to stay in the pharmaceutical industry but I want to move into corporate development (mergers and acquisitions, licensing, joint-ventures etc) or global marketing and that's why I'm doing the MBA.

Rotterdam is a working city. I doubt I'll stay in the Netherlands but that's because the jobs I'm interested in are more likely to be located outside the Netherlands – either the UK, US or Switzerland, or Scandinavia.

Michael Barrows opted for a two-year MBA course at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, USA

As soon as I arrived at Tuck I knew I'd found the right place. I was struck by the friendliness of the students and the approachability and calibre of the faculty.

Everything at Tuck takes place on a very human scale – something that is certainly not the case at any other school I visited.

I had worked in sales and marketing, taken a year off to ski in Canada and go round Europe on a motorbike, worked in the City and ended up working for my father's small engineering firm. I was looking for the next step. Tuck alumni are so willing to talk to current students and give an insider's view of their workplaces and I'm finding that really helpful. We get to live in a beautiful place, meet great new friends, study with some of the top academics in the world and get access to a very loyal alumni network.