I'm a current FY at Fuqua. My considerations when applying:
1) location - outside of Cali (spent life there, wouldn't get to know classmates as well with friends around) and not a big city (small town keeps everyone around)
2) pedagogy - not all one type, but a good mix of lecture, case & experiential learning
3) class size - not huge, but not super tiny
4) culture - not competitive, but team based & student driven (example: someone probably could have exempted our finance core class spent countless hours with us this last term to teach & help us pass... even though it's on a curve and he himself was ok with the material and could have spent that time doing other things)
5) unique opportunities/experiences - for me for Duke, this included things like the ropes course with our teams during orientation, GCP and GATE (global experiences), the winter term improv class (will be taking that soon!), Program for Entrepreneurs (P4E), and a faster term system than allowed for more clases (6 week terms; done with almost all core in fall)
With this criteria, I ended up applying to Kellogg, Ross & Duke. At Duke, our class's mean age is 29. A good number have partners and kids (the kids run a muck during Fuqua Fridays =)
In terms of VC & Entrepreneurship, Howie Rhee is the spearhead on our side for all that activity. Resources include:
https://sites.google.com/a/fuqua.duke.e ... e-students (includes P4E link)
https://www.dukegen.com
hope that helps,
--sv