Explore B-School Options

I have been blogging about how to ace the GMAT. Before I continue with that, I would like to address a very key issue regarding B-Schools. From personal exprience, I have observed that a lot of MBA aspirants don't spend a lot of time researching their B-School options. Some are so obssessed with B-School Ranks and Brands that they forget their own career goals in the process. There are some very reputed business schools who have joined the bandwagon with a plethora of new business schools, locating campuses in fancy locations abroad and try to entice students with the aid of these backgrounds.

The reality is that it doesn't really matter whether the campus is in Dubai, Singapore, Toronto, Montreal or whatever. The business school may be one of repute but what is the value you can get out of that B-school? Will it help you strengthen your foundations and help you secure good placements? Whats the faculty background of the business school? How strong is its alumni network? How much of alumni access do you get in the program?

Another strange observation has been the desperation to get into B-School in a particular year. There are a lot of people who do research schools and short-list schools for themselves. Due to some reason (GMAT Score / Interview / Application etc) these people don't manage to get into their dream schools or reach schools. Suddenly something takes them over. They are so bogged down by the pressure to go for the MBA that common sense becomes an extremely precious commodity! They just look at a business school abroad and feel that they can get in (and thats probably the case many a time). However, as mentioned above, once in this mental frame, they forget about all the research they did. All that they know is that they want to join 'some' b-school. Well if you wanted to join 'some' b-school, why take the pains of investing (in this case wasting) precious time and money. There are plenty of fly by night b-school degrees that will fetch far better returns. At least the fly by night operators don't end up getting you in a terrible loan position.

Take stock of your personal, financial and career position. Remind yourself why you want the MBA. You want it for career growth, right? You want to be in a good position with bright future prospects. Your GMAT score is valid for 5 years. If you have a good GMAT score but somehow faced the closed door, take a chill pill. What possibly went wrong? If the b-school gives you feedback on your application, its extremely good. However, many b-schools choose not to given individual application feedback. Look at the pool of admitted students. What was so distinct about people who got admitted with lower GMAT scores? What extra efforts can you put in to enhance your skills, professional courses and career progress before applying next year? It helps to discuss your applications with a seasoned professional. This professional could be some senior person in your known circles or an external consultant. If everything is fine and the GMAT score is below 20 points from the median GMAT score, try taking the GMAT once again with more practice.

Placement Statistics / Return on Investment
Always look at the median salaries of the previous placement cycle. Average will simply distort the numbers. Median gives you a realistic measure. Always remember that even the median figure discloses 'Cost to Company (CTC)' and not salary. A pragmatic measure in terms of net take home salary would be about 60% to 65% of the quoted CTC (Factoring perquisites, taxes and other deductions). If you have to take a loan to finance your MBA, what portion of the median salary will go towards the loan. It normally takes about 4 to 7 years to repay the loan amount. These are messages sent down by the hundreds and thousands of people who have gone for an MBA from sub-optimal universities/b-schools only to realize that they burnt their fingers big time.

To Be Continued...Raj
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