After high school in Nanjing, Queenie Ren followed a familiar path for young Chinese students. She moved to the US for higher education, studying economics at Brown University.
Five years later, she is back in China working for consultancies and investment banks. Now Ms Ren is considering applying to business school. But this time, she will stay close to home, planning only to apply to the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) in Beijing. She wants to remain in China because the opportunity to build Chinese contacts is more important than the prestige of a western MBA.
“Networking gets more and more important for your career,” Ms Ren says. “It is important to be local to do that.”