How to select the right business school

How to select the right business school: One of the most important and anxious question that all the MBA aspirants face in their MBA journey is how to go about selecting colleges. With all the information available, it is very easy to get lost in this vast oceans of data on the internet. At Careercarta we have always focused on helping students find their best mix amongst all the choices available and strongly believe in making their MBA choice as research backed as possible. Below are some of the pointers our admission counselling team has put across for helping students to make better choices.

How to select the right business school: College brand and culture: A big reason for majority of students wanting to pursue MBA is to gain international perspective and better career opportunities. A college’s brand value goes a long way in helping you prepare for your future. It opens new doors of opportunity on professional front. Cultural fit in the college is an extremely important factor as MBA is more of an experience and so it is of paramount importance that culturally there is an assimilation.

How to select the right business school: Faculty: Nobody could deny importance of teachers in an education setup and MBA is no different. A lot of people have viewpoints regarding most of the material being available online teachers are increasingly becoming redundant. Given the experiential mode of teaching followed by majority of B-Schools around the world nobody wants to get stuck with faculty focused more on academic way of teaching. Also since most of the students look for leadership roles after their B-School it is important they get exposure to real world scenarios in their classroom which can get them started on real world problems.

How to select the right business school: Academic inclination: While most of the B-School offer all sorts of specialization, it is important to realize one’s own interest and college’s established brand value in particular domain. For instance, while Chicago Booth and NYU Stern are known for their quantitative heavy curriculum ideal for students aiming for finance jobs post MBA, Duke Fuqua is known as a consulting heavy school. Does it mean that Chicago Booth is bad at other fields? No, all it means is that it somewhat better in one than the other. So it is important to match your aspirations with school’s expertise.

How to select the right business school: Alumni: This is by far one of the most important factor to consider while choosing any B-School. Alumni forms the first bridge for current students and their prospective professional career and a solid alumni base can go a long way to push start your career. While we touched upon college brand as an important parameter a bulk of it is built upon by the alumni.

How to select the right business school

How to select the right business school: Self-profile analysis: Research forms an extremely important part of this journey. Different schools have different requirements in terms of work experience, academic credentials, GMAT scores and other parameters we discussed in our previous article titled what B-Schools look for. So it is advisable to research in a very detail oriented manner to get to know the schools better and make informed choices about schools to apply. At Careercarta we always advice students to look at this process as a portfolio strategy. Like a portfolio which is designed to cover risk and maximize returns similarly selection of colleges should include a mix of colleges where chances of getting an admit range from high surety to moon shots.

To put it in a simple way college selection is one of the most important step in every aspirant’s MBA journey and as such requires meticulous planning because a lot hinges on what colleges make part of your application pool. We see a lot of candidates getting overwhelmed by the amount of data and opinions which are currently available online. At Careercarta we have a simple advice to all our aspirants grappling with this situation, first decide on your future goals and then research and research more. In case you are struggling to make these choice feel free to drop us a line at www.careercarta.com.

Read more about:Top 100 Business Schools outside US