Category Archives: International MBA

International MBA, MBA Adcom, MBA Admissions

10 Ways To Win The Game Of MBA Fairs

MBA fairs are events where many business schools are present in one place, each at a school-branded stall or booth, ready to interact with and provide information to prospective applicants.

How should you, the applicant, navigate these events? Here’s a 10-point guide:

1. Know why you are there. You are there to find out information about schools that is *not* on their Website. You want to be asking questions that will fill out your knowledge of the institution and the program, so that you can make good decisions where to apply. Some of what you learn should also be useful in your MBA admissions essays.

2. Know why they are there. The schools pay large sums to attend, and their goal is to promote their school brand and get the best set of applicants. They also want to provide enough information about their timelines so the good potential candidates get themselves into the process on time (including getting visas, etc.)

3. Be realistic about how many potential applicants any school rep will see in a day. That is, hundreds. That means no, he or she very likely will not remember you when you apply. But you may reference a conversation you had at the booth in your MBA essay.

4. Keep a savvy distinction in your head between a school rep and the admissions committee. It’s possible but unlikely that anyone from Adcom is at the booth.

5. Knowing your’e not talking to Adcom, and that the rep won’t particularly remember you, you can relax. This is not the time or place to sell yourself. Ask questions. Find out as much as you can. That’s what you’re there for and all that matters. If you are simply yourself it’s not going to harm your chances in any way. (For the same reason, there’s no need to dress up for an MBA Fair. Dress normally. And wear comfortable shoes!)

6. Knowing the school rep you’re talking to doesn’t make any admissions decisions –not even the first cut– also means there’s no point in monopolizing their time. Find out what you need and move on. Play nice for others who may be waiting.

7. Depending on your style, it’s worth having a planned route. You will have a good idea of the schools you want to talk to, and with a floor plan you can cover your ground in the most efficient way. But don’t shut out serendipity. Part of the benefit of an MBA admissions fair is discovery of the hidden gem.

8. Quality of engagement is more important than quantity. Having had a handful of significant chats with school reps is more valuable than saying hello and picking up the marketing material from 20 booths.

9. Go early. You want to catch the reps when they are fresh and when they have relatively more time for you.

10. Keep it professional. You’ll share some of your back-story and motivation in a decent conversation with a school rep, but you should remain at a business-like level. Your time at the booth can’t get you admitted, but it could circumscribe your chances.

International MBA, MBA Admissions

Top 3? Top 6? Among Elite MBA’s Does It Really Matter Where You Go?

One from the files: There was a thread on the Businessweek’s “Getting into B-School” forum when it existed, and the question asked was “Does rank really matter among the top 6?”

I selected extracts to present here because the questions and comments  deal with important and corrective thinking about what matters in rankings and reputation, and which help understand how US program rankings are perceived internationally too. It finishes with common sense conclusion that I endorse.

Original question: “Does rank really matter among Top Business schools? With my European point of view, I consider that there are only 6 Top Schools (in descending order): HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth and Kellogg. Actually, I don’t really care about rankings here: my only criteria is prestige (which in my view is the only thing you can’t ignore when applying to business schools). In Europe, these schools are famous: if you say Stanford or Columbia, everybody knows what you’re talking about. [But]If you say Tuck business school (at random), very few people will have heard of it regardless of the quality of the school.

“So my question is: among this prestigious top, does is REALLY matter if you go to one or another? On this forum we can often read that if you go to HBS it is infinitely better that if you go to Wharton but Wharton will change your life so much more than Kellogg, and so on and so forth.”

Response: “In France [among] 100 person taken randomly in the street and educated in France, 100 will know about HEC, 90 about Harvard, 3 to 5 about Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, Columbia and 10 maybe will know about INSEAD. But I would say that 90 will know about Yale, Princeton, 100 about Oxford, Cambridge.”

Response: “As a Frenchman I feel the need to throw in my 2 cents on this one. INSEAD is hands down the strongest MBA brand in France. Does every random person on the street necessarily know the name? No, but who cares? The employers do.”

Response: “I would like also to add that the education at the top business institutions is quite the same. I highly doubt that you will learn better investment management in Chicago or Wharton than in Yale, Haas or Fuqua. If you visit those schools, you might get surprised by the background of the faculty. You might take a class at Berkeley taught by a Yale alumni or even receive Michael Porter at Tuck.”

Response: “Although I agree with the notion that the value of an MBA drops as the ranking drops, I do not agree that there is a substantial difference between similarly ranked programs. Every objective metric I can think of (starting salary, quality of recruiting companies, average salary of graduates after 20 years etc.) clusters most top 15 programs closely together. The main exception seem to be HBS and Stanford. Another objective metric are the GMAT and the GPA. Those two metrics are hardly distinguishable in the top 15 programs, including HBS and Stanford.”

Original: “I’ve reached my conclusion I believe: go where you think you belong regardless of what people say/think. I chose to apply to Wharton and CBS finally even if i totally agree HBS / GSB are more famous and Booth / Kellogg are great schools simply because i think it will teach me what i want to learn in my specific field… And education among them is NOT that different, apart from some specialties that should ultimately lead your choice.”