Taking an MBA together is not everybody’s idea of a romantic break. Most postgraduates prefer to separate their management education from matrimony. But, every year, a small number of couples embark on an extended MBA study date.

Cambridge is a romantic place, with its splendid architecture and the River Cam flowing lazily along the College Backs. However, it is not romance that has enticed four couples to travel across the world to this historic city but the chance to take an MBA at Judge Business School.

For Kate and Peter Colarulli and Wontak Kim and Louise Westerlind, from America; Meghann O’Hara and Jonathan Fraser, from Canada, and Chia Han Tan and Hsin Lee, from Singapore, it is the start of a shared experience at one of Europe’s leading business schools. Although four couples in one cohort might be an exception, studying for an MBA with your partner is not that out of the ordinary. “It is not unusual to have at least one couple apply,” says Karen Siegfried, MBA executive director at Judge. “However, it is unusual for both members of the couple to be equally strong candidates, as we had this year.”

This togetherness may sound like a recipe for strife to some but tackling an MBA at the same time and business school as your significant other has its benefits. Having a study partner on hand, especially if you are good at different subjects, is useful.

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“My partner’s strengths are in maths and numbers, while my strengths are more in organisational subjects,” Hsin says. “So we can leverage each other’s strengths and cover for each other’s weaknesses.”

Being able to share study problems with your partner, rather than with a stranger, is also a plus.

Westerlind says: “It is much easier to talk to your partner, whom you trust 100 per cent. You don’t feel vulnerable telling them that you are finding something difficult.”

Manzur Quereshi and Sabera Choudrey studied for an executive MBA at the Chicago Graduate School of Business campus in London. “It was a tough programme, a huge time commitment, but having my wife sitting next to me in class probably made it easier,” Quereshi says. “Sabera understood what it took to get through it, probably a lot better than the partners of fellow students.”

If you are studying for an MBA together, there will be some testing times such as the switch from two incomes to no income.

Westerlind says: “We are both without an income right now. It means that at least one of us has to land a good job. Perhaps the biggest challenge, though, is if we get offers at the end of the programme and they are in different locations. Then it becomes tricky. But, if you find someone you care for, you have to compromise.”

Rather than finding the experience claustrophobic, couples appear to relish the prospect of an MBA à deux.

“It is like moving on together to another phase, not just in our careers but in our relationship,” Hsin says. “We think that going through the same experience will help us to grow together. We are not married but it is like an extended honeymoon.”

Setareh Olgiati, studying for an MBA at Tuck Business School at Dartmouth, in Hanover, New Hampshire, with her husband William, says: “As odd as it may sound, doing an MBA as a couple is a romantic experience.”

‘We do not aim to outdo each other’

Kate and Peter Colarulli, from America, believe that doing an MBA together at Judge is the right step for their careers and personal life.

“Kate has always dreamt about living outside the US so the MBA seemed like a good path to do that,” Peter says. “In terms of our lives we thought that being on the same schedule, doing the same things, would be a plus.”

One challenge that both identify concerns how they will be perceived by their MBA peers.

Kate says: “Last year Peter and I were together a lot but we still had our own lives and our own identities. It will be interesting to see how we find ourselves individually, when everyone else is defining us as a couple and seeing us that way.”

And what did friends say when they heard of the Colarullis’ plans? “Everyone asks us if we think we are going to be competitive, in terms of grades for example,” Peter says. “But while we are both competitive, typically we are not competitive with each other – unless we are playing Scrabble. So we don’t anticipate that being an issue.”