Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Choosing the right business school is an essential --but often overlooked-- element of having a great MBA experience. It's tempting to focus on the top six or eight business schools that you think that you can get into based on your GPA and GMAT and just apply to those.

That approach, however, does not always put applicants where they are going to be happiest, both during and after their MBA program. Here is a list of the top factors besides ranking that every MBA candidate should consider when choosing where to apply.

Geography: Business schools, even top business schools, are often still very geographically specific. Expect that the majority of your fellow alumni will come from and stay in the region that your business school is located in.

Many MBA applicants underestimate the importance of their post-MBA network of friends and contacts. If you are Atlanta with an MBA from UCLA then your network --most of which is in California-- is not going to be real useful and you are giving up a huge advantage of having an MBA. A Stanford alum in the DC area recently told me, "I hadn't really thought about it before but about 95% of my class is in the San Francisco Bay Area."

Think very carefully about where you want to live and where you plan to build your career after business school. If it is not in the approximate region of where you are applying to business school there should be a very good reason.

This cuts both ways, of course. If you plan to live the rest of your life in Miami, why would you want to go to Harvard? There are some good reasons, but you should also seriously consider the the University of Miami! And, if your company is paying for you to go locally (even if it is to a less prestigious school), then that should be an important consideration, too.

Does this mean that you should not fly off and have an adventure for two years in Europe or somewhere outside your region? Of course not. It just means that you should make an informed choice and that school location deserves more consideration than it usually gets.



How Quantitative / How non-Quantitative?: Nobody gets through business school without a healthy dose of all things quantitative but some get more than others. Find out if the programs you are applying to are more or less quant-oriented. As a starter, Chicago, Duke, MIT, and Carnegie-Mellon have the reputation of being quant-heavy. If that's what you want, great; if it's not, then you may want to consider applying elsewhere. Typically, schools that are strong in finance schools have more required quant stuff; schools that are strong in marketing have less.


Teaching Style: Most business schools use cases but some are purely case and others are more lecture-based. Do you want to be cold-called on a case? If you are cold- called, do you want it to be a softball or a hardball? Some schools are known for their rigorous classroom interactions (Harvard, UVA) while others are known for being a bit (or a lot) easier. There's no right answer, of course: if you like the verbal jousting then go to a hard cold-calling school; if not, then stay away.


Program Strengths: It is simply a fact that some programs are stronger in some areas than other programs. UCLA is great in finance and entrepeneurship. MIT is great in operations and economics. UVA and HBS are great in general management. NYU and Penn are great in finance. If you know what you want to study, it is probably worth your while to apply to schools that are strongest in your area of interest.

Top schools are good in everything but not great in everything. If you know what you want, it may be worth it to go to a program that is great in your area of interest.


Class Size: School sizes range from the very small (Berkeley and Stanford) to the very large (Harvard). Think carefully about whether you want to go to a big program or a smaller program.


Urban / Suburban?: What kind of lifestyle appeals to you? Do you want to live in the 'burbs or are you more of an urban person. This can make a big difference to your quality of life if you are miserable in one or the other.


Groups or Solo Flyer?: I strongly recommend groups but some programs require them. If you really want to be in a group then apply to progams that require them; if you are a solo operator, then you probably want to avoid those schools.


What about free money? Strong students should think very carefully about whether they want to apply to less prestigious schools (hopefully still in the top 20) than they have a chance of getting into to increase their chances of getting scholarships and grants. If you are cash-constrainted or just don't want to graduate with a mountain of debt, then you might want to consider applying to at least one solid "safety / scholarship" program. That scholarship offer letter is mighty nice to get!



All these things said, are there things that I don't need to worry about? Yes.

- Don't worry about whether a school is international. All top business schools these days have large numbers of international students. If you don't have much international exposure before business school, working with people from all over the world will be routine after two years.

- Don't pay a whole lot of attention to the career management center as long as the program is in the top twenty. They're all good. The top employer statistics (which always seem to include the most prestigious companies) are not very useful and not necessarily representative.

- The business school is ranked fifth instead of fourth. The criteria I have outlined above are far more important than the constantly shifting distinctions of the rankings. There is a big difference between a top ten school and a top forty or fifty school but that's another story. As I like to say, "There are twenty schools in the top ten." And there are!


What other criteria are you using? Post your thoughts below.

-Paxton

Thanks for the insight Paxton!
Personally, I would also add grade disclosure to the list. I went to an udergrad institution where the competition was fierce and we lost out on a whole year because we were not so cordial in our freshman year. Whereas in college you have 3 years after freshman year to make amends, in b-school it'll just be another year. I obviously don't mean lack of competition but debate and discussion without it having to get ugly.

In a similar vein, the amount of interaction between 2nd years and 1st years - I'm sure this exists at all schools because of the very nature of the program and the clubs etc but how approachable are seniors and how ready to dispense with advice.

Flexibility in case you're a career changer (in which case the above mentioned interaction bit is also important) i.e. to move up some classes to be competitive for internships.

Lastly, this might be a bit silly but the weather! Yes, the weather. If you're coming from a tropical country with no exposure to cold/extreme climates and a tendency to fall sick easily, think again about schools in really cold places. (Ok, I'm a bit of a hypochondriac)