MBA program research

This post is primarily geared for those of you in the MBA program research phase of the pre-MBA process. I thought I would share couple of ideas about finding an MBA program which is right for you.

Good place to start is to think about what is it that you want to get out of an MBA? Whether it's strictly more money, career growth, or learning aspect that you find appealing. Once you have figured it out, it’s good to keep it in the back of your mind when you are doing your MBA program research.

Next, try to outline your strengths (eg. strong analytical ability, leadership, teamwork, etc.). Being realistic about it is going to help not only in the MBA search but also in the later MBA career search.

Combination of strengths and your goals should give you a pretty good idea about the types of MBA programs that you should be targeting. At this point you should be able to narrow it down to 5-10 schools.

Then there’s a question of fit. The tricky part about fit is that it works both ways. From school’s prospective they are ultimately looking to maximize the number of students successfully placed in high paying jobs. As those students would not only look good on career placement reports, helping to justify high cost of the program, but will also be a generous alumni, providing future support for school. Programs also want to ensure that each student contributes positively to school’s learning environment. On the other hand, you, as a candidate, want to find a best program that would help you accomplish and exceed your goals while being a good personal fit, lets call it a fun factor.

Once you have narrowed the list of schools down to 5-10 schools you can try to prioritize those schools by putting together a list of factors that makes each school different. Those factors can include average starting salary after graduation, tuition fees and cost of living, rankings, program length, class size, just to name few. Depending on how important each of those factors is to you, assign weights (1-10) to each one of them. Adding up the results for each program would tell you the top picks.

Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and make plans to meet some of your top picks in-person. I would say the easiest way to start would be to find one of the MBA fairs in your area. If you are lucky, all the schools on your list would be there to meet you. You can even go as far as email each school’s admissions and try to set up personal meetings before the fair. If you are lucky, some might even offer to take a look at your qualifications and do an interview if they think that you might be a good fit.

Use an MBA fair as an acid test. Approach all of the schools on your list and ask admissions if your background /goals are a good fit for a program. Make sure to talk to some of the alumni and current students to get a sense of what each program is looking for, both personality and background wise.
If you get a good feeling from talking to both admissions and students don’t hesitate to ask about possibility to visit the school and sit in one of the actual classes. That should give you a much better sense of a fit. You can also try to email both professors and current students to see how responsive they are to answering questions.

MBA fair links:

http://www.topmba.com/mba_fairs/
http://www.thembatour.com/

I’ll be one of the students representing Ivey at the MBA fair on September 23, 2007 in Toronto. Hope to meet some of you there.


Good luck!
George