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QS applicant survey shows big discrepancies between Asian MBA candidates
The latest research figures from the 2008 QS TopMBA Applicant Survey, the largest survey of MBA candidates around the world, show some key differences in the choice of specializations between nationalities in Asia, and the rest of the world. The Survey, created from questionnaires received from 3,000 international MBA applicants attending the QS World MBA Tour in Fall 2007 and Spring 2008, shows that Chinese students top the table for the proportion of Asian students wanting to study the finance specialization at business school (60.8%). Meanwhile very few Chinese candidates (9.2%) would consider technology management as an option.
In complete contrast, almost one in three Indian nationals are looking at the technology management option (29.8%), the highest proportion in the whole of Asia and twice the average for Asia, while the finance specialization is the choice of only 49.3% of Indians, just above the Asian average.
Table 1 shows MBA specialization options in order of popularity from a list of 10 (Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR, E-Commerce, Entrepreneurship, Finance, General Management, International Management, Leadership, Marketing, Operations, Strategy and Technology Management).
| Country | Most popular | Second most | Least popular | Second least |
| China
| Finance (61%) | Strategy (47%) | Technology Mgmt (9%) | CSR (11%) |
| India
| Finance (49%) | Strategy (44%) | E-Commerce (7%) | CSR (10%) |
| Kazakhstan | General Mgmt (63%) | Finance (59%) | CSR (3.1%) | Technology Mgmt(3.2%) |
| S. Korea | General Mgmt (62%) | Strategy (58%) | E-Commerce (0%) | Operations (4%) |
| Malaysia
| Strategy (57%) | Leadership (47%) | Technology (16%) | Operations (18%) |
| Pakistan | Finance (55.7%) | General Mgmt (55.5%) | E-Commerce (10%) | CSR (17%) |
| Philippines | International Mgmt(52%) | Strategy (43%) | E-Commerce (7%) | Technology Mgmt (12%) |
| Thailand
| Marketing (46%) | Finance (45%) | CSR (8%) | Operations (9%) |
| Vietnam | International Mgmt (57%) | Finance (44%) | CSR (15%) | Technology Mgmt (19%) |
