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Selecting a Business School is one of the trickiest games that a student can play in his life time. It is not only that the deal is expensive but also that that one brand name stays with you all your life. Even if you climb the Mount Everest, you would still be reported as “Mr. XYZ Donkey, a grad of ABC Donkey School, climbed Mount Everest.” So the choice of a Business School is not only for the 2 years that you would be spending on the campus but also a decision of a life time (unless you are planning to do a second MBA).
Everyone wants to be called a Harvard graduate but is Harvard really fit for every Business School applicant? Is every applicant comfortable at studying in a class of 900 or is the case study method a great option for every candidate? This is where the so called “FIT” comes into play. As every individual is different and has different needs so is every Business School different and wants different candidates. Stanford and MIT may be your dream schools but have you done a reality check whether you would ever get an admission there? “What are my chances” is a good question to ask here.
Your GMAT score and GPA would be the first reality checks that would help you in giving a rough idea about your school choices. Let’s say that you have some 9-10 Business Schools in your mind that you wish to apply to. Your choices, more or less, would be distributed in the following way.
- Real: 2-3 Business School are the ones where you can give it a shot and stand a decent chance at getting in.
- Safety: Schools that make a good fit for you and you have the best chance of getting there. This doesn’t mean that that you apply to any XYZ school just because you are desperate to get an MBA. As you would be spending time and money, I am sure you do not want to spend two miserable years among the people you never wanted to be with.
- Dream: A total waste of time and you know that you would never get into these. You would rather spend more time in writing quality application for schools where you actually stand a fair chance.
Let us accept the fact that if your dream school has an average GMAT score of 720, average GPA of 3.3, average work experience of 4 years, and some Goldman or Morgan Stanley employees studying in the current class- and you have 640 GMAT, low GPA, no extra curriculars and worked at no-name hedgefunds- you would rather be fooling yourself by applying to your DREAM school.
It’s time for some serious reality check before you get into the process of ordering brochures, writing to people, evaluating websites and checking out the profiles.
Make a realistic approach on all the 6 factors above before you decide upon applying to any Business school. Your GPA, GMAT, work exe, extra curriculars, what are the profiles of other applicants and how much are you competitive in applying to that applicant pool- all would matter. If one part of you application is lagging as compared to the school composite, you are doing pretty okay in applying to that school. But if you are falling weak in all the aspects, you would better think again.
That said, this is half of the reality check the other half is a long tiresome process. Mind you, you would not be able to do the next half of the evaluation if you have not been able to assess your long and short term goals because then you would not be able to figure out what exactly you want from a Business School and how would your background/ personality fit with the school. You would have to be clear with your “Why MBA” question to be able to find the right school for yourself.
1. Programme Evaluation:
Are you a career switcher? Is there any specific paper that you want to study at school? What is the teaching methodology at school- lecture based or case study? A case study method is a great method but are you comfortable with it for all the subjects? Does a programme have grade non-disclosure: a policy that disallows students to share their grades during first-round on campus recruiting, or in cover letters, resumes, or e-mails? Do you want a two year, one year, full time, part time, executive, or an evening programme? Do you want to study in a class of 900 (Harvard) or a small class of 350+ (Stanford)? Is it a flexible programme? Do you want a concentration focused towards consultancy or analytics? Does the course curriculum make sense with your career goals? Does school offer a student exchange programme? List out all the questions that matter the most to you regarding the programme and it would be easier for you to compare one programme with the other. You might not get a crystal clear result but you would definitely get a kick start regarding where your bill is fitting.
2. Financial Aid:
Does a school offer guaranteed loans? Do you need a co-signer to get your loan sanctioned? What are the scholarship options available? What is your opportunity cost? Does the school offer full loans/ scholarships? The living costs may differ from city to city. Living in New York city would be far expensive than living in Ann Arbor. Costs can play a big factor for someone who has a family to support. For example if you want to work in US after completing your Business School, it will make sense to bear the heavy financial burden meanwhile if you plan to work somewhere close to home, you should focus your research accordingly.
3. Environment:
Is the close-knit community with team oriented culture best for you or does the competitive environment excite you? Does a school have active alumi network? Are there enough alums in your field of interest? Does a school have diverse student body? What are the school’s values? Does the faculty have enough managerial experience? What are the most active clubs in the school? Are there enough clubs of your interest? What opinions have students about the school? Is the school spouse-friendly? Does the location of the school suit you- urban or suburban? Is the housing on campus or off campus?
4. Recruitments:
This is one of the most important evaluation tool that one must keep in mind while selecting a business school. Go through the placement statistics for both summer internships and final placements. Are companies that you want to work for recruiting the students from your targeted school? Are there enough recruitments in your area of interest? How concentrated are the career services in school? How many offers are made in your target industry? What are the salary packages offered? What kind of positions have been offered to alumni in past? Does a school have global recruiters?
5. Branding/Rankings:
Rankings are a good way to start your research but just be sure that you read the methodology used by the company. You can also compare the rankings of current year and the past year to take a rough idea of the areas where school has improved upon. What kind of reputation does the school have among the recruiters of that area? Are there any known alums from the school? Is the sschool accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) or The European Foundation for Management Development or The Association of MBAs or The Central and East European Management Development Association?
School selection is a tedious process but it is important that you feel the belongingness for the school. Business schools conduct information sessions, organize educational fairs, host informal chats, send free brochures etc. to attract the potential candidates. As an aspirant, you must try to extract as much information by attending them, they are a great way to know meet people and get the first hand information. You must thoroughly research the school website- programmes, clubs, faculty, alumni, career services, FAQs, admission requirements, housing, financing etc. Get in touch with the students/ faculty/ career services officer regarding any queries you have related to admissions. You can also access the various school forums such a Wharton’s student2student forum or Chicago Booth’s admission discussions. Read the admission blogs/ publications of your targeted schools- (all the links of admission blogs can be found in Hundreds of GMAT Prep Resources post) School visits and attending a class should also be considered, you would get a feel of the environment and culture there. It would be easier for you to decide whether you want to be a part of that culture or that you make a better fit somewhere else. You can use alumni websites to get in touch with alumni incase you have some relevant questions to ask. Don’t go on asking the class strength or average GMT of the current class kind of questions because all this information is available on the school website.
Going to a Business school would be a lifetime experience so the preparations would not be easier. Isn’t it? It is best that you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses thoroughly and do your homework before making your final decision. Every Business school would put its best foot forward in marketing itself so better do smart work.
What the GRE changes mean to you: the essays, and where should your b-school road lead you?
Like the current GMAT and GRE, the new GRE will offer two writing tasks as part of its “Analytical Writing Assessment.” Unlike the current GMAT and GRE, the new test is planning to deviate from the practice of inserting a standard set of directions into each prompt. Instead, variable instructions more or less unique to each prompt will be provided. You can access the 17 or so published examples and more examples are expected to be revealed over time.
What this means in practice can be illustrated by a simple example. Suppose you’re asked to write an argument in response to a publishing company’s proposed initiative to reorient its business around electronic media delivery. (That kind of proposal has been a standard on both GRE and GMAT for years.) On the new GRE, it would not be a surprise to see the following sentence inserted within the directions:
Be sure to consider the possible consequences of continuing to rely on the print medium exclusively.
Such a sentence would force examinees to think about the alternatives to getting involved in e-media, whereas on today’s GRE and GMAT – which offer no such “customized” instructions – only those examinees who happen to think of those alternatives will bring them up. See the difference?
On the downside, customized directions mean that one really can’t pre-plan one’s structure or approach much in advance. On the upside, one’s brainstorming will be given a specific and directed jump start, which is the surest way to ensure an interesting, substantive essay. Business schools, in particular, will be interested in seeing the results of a more directed kind of thinking process.
What won’t change is the edge that a GRE examinee will possess if she has a strong command of basic writing skills and a practiced affinity for argument. And those skills can and should be learned and improved, well in advance of Test Day.
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We began this deconstruction of the proposed GRE with the basic principle that the GRE is hoping to muscle in on the GMAT’s turf by offering business schools a superior assessment tool, their means of doing so the addition of newly-thought-out question types and better usage of the computer format’s features. Naturally, it’s way too soon to decide when (or even whether) the entrenched GMAT will take much of a hit in this regard.
We do know that some business schools have already begun to accept the GRE in lieu of the GMAT. We can also be pretty sure that the GRE folks wouldn’t embark on this complicated and expensive process if they didn’t feel they had a reasonable prospect of achieving their goals. (Those goals include a better, more predictive test, of course. But the goal of giving the GMAT a run for its money can’t be forgotten.)
Above all, we know that unless there’s an enormous, undetectable sea-change in the wind, the odds of any business school’s totally dropping the GMAT in favor of the GRE – at least in the near term – are long indeed. So just as aspiring college students are free to submit either the SAT or ACT for admission purposes, b-school applicants should be in the enviable position of examining two tests, taking practice tests in both, and then submitting only one real score to a business school. Right now, Kaplan’s advice to the precollege student is to take a prep course for one of the exams – the one s/he feels most comfortable with – and then to take both the ACT and SAT for real. In time, this may very well be our advice to those eyeing business school as well.
The watchword for now is: Knowledge is power. Keep an eye on both the GRE and GMAT websites as these next few months roll along. Take note of individual b-schools’ announced or proposed admissions requirements, especially those in which you have an interest. Don’t be afraid to call a business school or two, and ask them (politely) how they are feeling about this new GRE, and whether they anticipate they’ll accept its scores. And keep watching this space for Kaplan’s take on future developments.
The new GRE will be much less of a mystery by the time it’s first offered. So will the policies of each business school, as it does its own assessment of the terrain and decides what scores, or combination thereof, will suit its purpose: to assemble the very best first-year class it can.
