How to Shortlist MBA Universities
Researching on business schools and taking time out to find the best possible options for yourself can be very rewarding and lead to making more intelligent choices. But how do you begin and go about the entire process?
. Do you make a list of colleges based on geography, course structure and placements?
. Do you look at things like environment, international student body and social factors?
. Or do you look at placements, ROI and brand?
There's a good chance, you answered yes to all of the above. However, zeroing in on the perfect combo of 5-6 schools may seem like a daunting task. This is especially true if you do not consider the most important parameters relevant to your profile and start looking at colleges solely based on brands, ranking or endorsements from friends and family because it seems like the easy way out. What then is the best way to start looking? Start at the ending. Look closely at where you see yourself and what you envision doing. Then look at the most likely way to reach your destination post MBA. Look at schools which actively place students in the industry and function of your choice.
Should you rely solely on rankings? Rankings by all means can be the beginning of your programme search but you do not want to solely base your decision on these. Most rankings are surveys and data which help students to compare schools on various criteria like reputation, recruiter satisfaction and are not very accurate measures of the educational quality of institutions. And really, course offerings are different from school to school and individual criteria and personal expectations of a student vary so an excellent "fit" school for one might not even be on a list of another. This is why there is no substitute to doing your own detailed research. Randomly applying to schools just based on rankings can lead to disappointment later. I am not discouraging you to not refer to rankings but keep the following parameters in mind while looking at possible business schools:
1. The rankings do not necessarily tell you about the schools in detail with respect to the course details, networking opportunities, support system, extracurricular opportunities, internship and placement opportunities and percentage of industries where students land up. Overall rankings hide the strengths and weaknesses of schools in different areas and there are many outstanding programmes beyond the top twenty - thirty schools.
2. The rankings do not highlight the differences between various schools or compare programmes. For example, there could be a huge difference between two schools in terms of percentage of international students or the kind of employers hiring graduates.
3. Surveys which ultimately decide rankings are very incomplete indicators of the quality of courses. Existing students and alumni participate in surveys and they have their own interests while giving positive reviews.
4. Rankings do not indicate class size. A choice of whether to study at a school with a large class room consisting of 300+ students or thriving in a more personal and close knit community of under a 100 is only a student's and cannot be made through rankings.
5. Rankings also do not give you details and professional background break up of students which might be critical in weighing in choices. Most business schools have set criteria to admit a certain percentage of students from Engineering, Business, Art backgrounds, etc which can help while narrowing choices.
What you should really do: There is nothing compared to conducting a detailed research after narrowing down a couple of schools. Start looking closely at school websites, research on the curriculum and faculty and try making personal connections with these schools either through direct contact ( connecting with the admissions office or visiting the school campus) , through fairs, virtual information sessions or current students and alumni. Pay very close attention to the companies hiring at your target schools. Many offer complete employment reports on their websites but in case they don't, you can always reach out to their career development centres directly. They are always happy to help. Scrutinise the target programme and each of its component. Also look at extracurricular activities on offer and see if these are in sync with your educational needs. Remember, the school should appeal to you on a professional and personal level and you need to be 100 % convinced of your choice. Utilise every opportunity to interact with current students and alumni to get first hand perspectives on the quality of course and its impact on their personal and professional life. An insider's peep will also help you decipher if the school's values are in sync with your own. Lastly, do not miss any opportunity to visit the school campus if possible. You will probably not get any bonus points on account of having made the effort, but the preparedness and thoroughness will definitely reflect in the quality of your application, taking you a bit closer to the ultimate goal.