School Selection - the I-way
I dont know whether i am qualified enough to speak about school selection, because exactly one year back - i was in the other (more active) CAT group of threads. This was the time when there was heavy speculation in the air, about the timing of the CAT result, and i was hoping i'd get at least one call. One month later, i was hopefully clinging on to the XAT results, only to be defeated by DI. Till Feb, i was sulking.
Bottom line, whatever i knew about schools is whatever i learned in the past 10 months. This post should hence be taken with a lot of salt (as against a
pinch).
The beginning
I knew the US MBA experience was completely different from the Indian MBA experience. I also knew one must be extremely focussed (or atleast have an idea) about what he/she wants to do after the degree. When i created my own profile in
www.mba.com, i figured out they have a LOT of info about the stuff i wanted to know. The particularly interesting feature was the "one day in the life of" page. It gave me a lot of info i needed, which helped me clear my head and also during the school selection process.
Generally speaking, do some introspection and a lot of data accumulation about all the options an US MBA would place in front of you. This, i believe, is very important. I was clear about which field i wanted to get in, but this process helped me zero in a a few functions, which i intend to explore while in school.
Rankings - make the right choice
I wanted to go to a top school. Period.
Rankings provide a quantified way to compare between different schools, and hence are an important part of the school selection process. Once i
was clear (or at least not too confused) about my post MBA goals, I now went to these rankings. While there are a lot of institutions doing ranking schools, it is important to understand the ones which are relevant to us, as applicants, and also those which are valued generally. To be able to do this effectively, it is important to understand the methodology behind the rankings.
Once you visit these rankings, prepare your own table and capture specific info about the top schools in all lists. Then go on to zero in on the schools that you find more impressive. Now that you have your post-MBA plans clear, a lot of schools will easily move out of the radar. Be brutally honest with yourself here - if you see that famous course moving out of the list because it is not in line with your career interests, dont worry. you are only doing yourself a huge favor by moving that school out of the list. This is a place where you make absolutely
no compromises.
Info, info everywhere
Now go to the websites of all these schools and mine for all kind of information. Sign up with the schools and ask them to mail you their brochures (i have quite a collection
). Once you sign up, the school will keep u posted abt everything happening in the school (w.r.t. admissions of course). The school's websites will have latest info on admission and recruitment - which we should obviously be interested in. The website is also a great way to find info about the academics, faculty, specializations and more importantly, the culture of the school.
Also check out the schedule of the receptions organized by the school and register for them as and when registrations are open. Explore all possibilities of obtaining info about the school. Mail current students (you can get their ids thru the websites - mostly in club pages), mail alums (this you can find only thru the students), seek info in numerous forums (again - use ur judgement), try everything you can ever think of. Come out of your shell and reach out!
With all the info, you will now begin the difficult process of looking beyond the facts and figures, and selecting a school which will be good for you. Just like we applicants are in diff flavors, schools come in diff flavors too. The important thing to remember here is that we might feel good about more than one flavor - we dont necessarily have to "fit" at only one kind of school. The trade offs must always be done in the non-core areas and not your core criterion for selecting a school. If living in a city and a sub-urb doesnt make any difference for you, your school list will widen - but u cannot never choose a school not strong in strategy consulting and dream that the school will provide you openings in SC. That's perhaps a pretty straight forward example - but i guess i made my point clear
A list of the issues to consider while selecting schools:
- Academics - explore the strengths and weaknesses of the course. Be sure you beat market perceptions. A school like Kellogg (for all it's fame/name in Marketing) has a pretty good Finance course, with all top recruiters visiting. Then rip apart all options the school offers in the particular specialization u r interested in - from individual courses to related professional clubs.
- Flexibility of the Curriculum - while the completely flexible curriculum of Kellogg might sound cool, make sure u r ready for it. It is a huge burden u r taking on urself!
- Specific courses - if you are super clear abt the courses u want to take, or if you have unique course requirements, make sure the school offers those.
- Teaching methodology - Apart from the case method against lecture argument, make sure you check the other options also. Experiential learning options, international learning visits, conferences held by clubs, competitions run by clubs, anything you'd care about.
- Learning groups - While all schools use groups, check out specific details about the group organization of each school. Number of students per group, frequency of group changes etc shud show u whether u'd be comfortable in such a group environment.
- Clubs - Check out whether the school offers you clubs in all areas you are keen about - both professional and otherwise. Pick out individual clubs and check the activities of these clubs. If you find any club missing and if u feel passionate abt the subject, not this down and mention u plan to start such a club if u r admitted
- Culture - One cannot define this. This is basically what you feel about the school. There might be unconventional ways to figure this out. Does the school have a forum, does the school participate in the more renowned forums (BW), what do you feel about the behavior of the current students or executives from the school (whom you'd meet in receptions), does the school reach out to applicants in any other way - if yes, check that out. The student body will have a personal side and figure that out. Ask yourself whether you'd wanna be a part of a student body.
- Student attitude - a controversial discussion. I am not going name schools or use adjectives here. I guess you guys know what i am speaking about But it is best you discuss this with people you know.
- Alumni participation - check this out. The school's alums are the primary long term contacts in business. Verify the opportunities the schools provide to meet alums and interact with them, apart from the career events.
- Career Services - All schools have a career services site. Check out their activities and what they offer to you. This is important.
- Recruiting companies - All schools provide a list of companies visiting campus. Check if ur target companies are in the list.
- Seeping thru details - B schools love to dump u with data. There will be tables and charts in the placement details page, trying to project a colorful picture. Check if the particular function(s) u r interested in have a good scope in ur target school. Check their base salaries, compare them against the others.
I am 110% sure i missed something. The bottom line here is to try figure out as much about all the schools and make an informed choice.
GMAT
As i mentioned in one of my earlier posts, gather this info and try to beat the
median GMAT score (this will be a single figure) of your target schools, by as much as possible. If you can handle additional self induced pressure, consider the top end of the
middle 80% scores (schools give u a range eg: 640 - 780. This means approx 10% of their class scored less than 640 and vice versa) listed by the schools and try to beat that. Generally, the maximum
median GMAT score will be around 710 and the maximum ens of the
middle 80% score will be near 800. This is for TOP schools.
Also - select 5 schools which u'd definitely apply, and report scores for free. For me atleast, it was important to be clear about this list because i was always working towards those targets. Without knowing the target schools, my mind would definitely have lost its way during GMAT preps. Again - it is all speculation and i might be biased coz it all worked well for me
Linear Mode
