CHOOSING which business school to apply to requires detailed, hands-on research about culture, curriculum emphasis and extramural activities. The most important parameters to look at are:


Location: Place strongly affects the kind of students you are with, the companies recruiting for internships, jobs on campus and so on.



Profile of participants: If you make the effort to understand the subtle differences in the type of person each school attracts and you go where you will more easily fit in, you will be a lot happier.



Recruitment opportunities: Every school publishes a list of companies that come to campus and how many graduates they hire, together with placement rates and average starting salaries. Average starting salary is a much better guide to a programme’s real prestige than any magazine rankings.



Length, structure, flexibility: The time it takes to get an MBA ranges from ten months to two years. Longer programmes offer more electives, exchange programmes and other forms of enrichment, including summer internships.



Electives and options: Mostly the core curriculum is identical everywhere and from a strictly educational point of view it doesn’t matter too much where you do it. Electives, however, differ significantly from school to school, according to faculty staff interest and expertise. External projects and exchange opportunities will also vary.



Reputation: Reputation is not the same as the popular annual rankings published by business periodicals. The rankings are a guide to reputation, very often flawed, and no more. In my opinion, the top schools are: Chicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Fuqua, Harvard, Insead, Kellogg, London Business School, Michigan, Sloan, Stanford, Stern and Wharton — with Haas, Johnson, Tuck, Darden and IMD and IESE also there or thereabouts.

To find out about schools, try to get the real story by talking to students and alumni; if possible visit the campus.

Even if you are an excellent candidate, it is impossible to be sure that you will get into any one institution. Try to apply to a minimum of three, including at least one “dream” school and one “safety” school.



Precis from MBA Admissions Strategy, by A. V. Gordon (£13.99).

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