ICADE master's for €20,000: bargain or rip-off?
A master's at ICADE in Spain costs €20,000, half the price of one at IE. Is it a bargain or a second-rate product? The debate over price, quality and connections.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
A master's at ICADE for €20,000: does the price tell the whole story?
Can a master's at ICADE cost less than half of one at IE and still be at the same level? That is the question hanging in the air when a prospective student discovers that the master's at Universidad Pontificia Comillas (a private university in Madrid) runs around €20,000, while at IE Business School they never drop below €40,000. The gap is so steep that, in any other market, the expensive product would disappear. But these are master's degrees, not tomatoes.
The price chasm: €20,000 versus €40,000
The data is stubborn: a master's at ICADE costs less than €20,000, according to a query from a prospective student. At IE, the minimum is €40,000. At IESE and ESADE, similar figures. The first reaction is to assume the cheap one is worse. Some argue that ICADE sells a lower-quality product, a kind of low-cost master's that doesn't open the same doors. The argument rests on the fact that the fee-paying business schools (IE, IESE, ESADE) compete in a premium segment, and their price filters for clients with purchasing power or companies that foot the bill. ICADE, by contrast, is seen as a traditional university with filler master's programmes.
Selection and fruta: where's the catch?
But the story has nuances. At undergraduate level, ICADE and ICAI are considered among the best in Spain, especially in Law and Business Administration (E3) and Engineering. Entry selection is tough; an acquaintance of mine didn't make the cut last year. For master's programmes, however, the admissions process seems less demanding, which fuels the suspicion that they are not at the same level. Another line of analysis goes further: it claims that master's degrees, connections or not, guarantee nothing. That they exist so that "daddy's boy" can show off a credential, but that without contacts the return is meagre. In that case, paying €40,000 would be an even more dubious investment.
The debate leaves an uncomfortable conclusion: the price of a master's does not always reflect its real value, but rather the power of the brand and the ability to attract companies willing to pay their employees' bills. In the end, the master's market works like the wine market: price doesn't guarantee quality, but nobody risks tasting the cheap one.
Can a master's at ICADE cost less than half of one at IE and still be at the same level? That is the question hanging in the air when a prospective student discovers that the master's at Universidad Pontificia Comillas (a private university in Madrid) runs around €20,000, while at IE Business School they never drop below €40,000. The gap is so steep that, in any other market, the expensive product would disappear. But these are master's degrees, not tomatoes.
The price chasm: €20,000 versus €40,000
The data is stubborn: a master's at ICADE costs less than €20,000, according to a query from a prospective student. At IE, the minimum is €40,000. At IESE and ESADE, similar figures. The first reaction is to assume the cheap one is worse. Some argue that ICADE sells a lower-quality product, a kind of low-cost master's that doesn't open the same doors. The argument rests on the fact that the fee-paying business schools (IE, IESE, ESADE) compete in a premium segment, and their price filters for clients with purchasing power or companies that foot the bill. ICADE, by contrast, is seen as a traditional university with filler master's programmes.
Selection and fruta: where's the catch?
But the story has nuances. At undergraduate level, ICADE and ICAI are considered among the best in Spain, especially in Law and Business Administration (E3) and Engineering. Entry selection is tough; an acquaintance of mine didn't make the cut last year. For master's programmes, however, the admissions process seems less demanding, which fuels the suspicion that they are not at the same level. Another line of analysis goes further: it claims that master's degrees, connections or not, guarantee nothing. That they exist so that "daddy's boy" can show off a credential, but that without contacts the return is meagre. In that case, paying €40,000 would be an even more dubious investment.
The debate leaves an uncomfortable conclusion: the price of a master's does not always reflect its real value, but rather the power of the brand and the ability to attract companies willing to pay their employees' bills. In the end, the master's market works like the wine market: price doesn't guarantee quality, but nobody risks tasting the cheap one.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (30 replies).
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