For those of you who are beginning to think about MBA applications for the class of 2008, we’d like to offer a few critical tips on researching the schools. Although there are many issues to consider when choosing a group of target MBA programs (size, location, teaching method, industry strength, fit), this post focuses on the tools that are available to help applicants evaluate the various programs that may be on an initial list.

Visiting Campus
Perhaps the best way to decide whether you like a school is to visit: take a tour, speak with current students, sit in on a class, etc. This will give you a feel for the school’s atmosphere, attitudes, community, and focus on academics. You will also get to see whether you like the school’s location within the surrounding city or town. Early-bird applicants may consider visiting in the spring semester before applying so as to avoid juggling applications and campus visits in the fall.

Student Writings
Thanks to the combination of schools’ recruiting strategies and the blogging phenomenon, there is now a plethora of ways to read about the experiences of current business school students.

There are a number of benefits to reading what current students are writing. They will write about everything from their classes to their internship/job search to their peers to their thoughts about the Super Bowl. While this is not a systematic way to gain information – you never know what you will be reading about – you will find that some of what you read will be quite useful, and may go a long way to shaping your perception about a school.

There are also many online forums about business schools, which give you the chance to talk (and panic) with other applicants, as well as the occasional admissions officer and current student. While the information on these forums is not always reliable – rumors tend to spread fairly well – chats with current students, in particular, can be useful.

Human Resources Departments
You can learn a fair amount from speaking with the human resources departments of firms who you expect to target post-MBA. You can ask them if they would be interested in someone of your background (with or without an MBA), and what schools they would recommend you consider. You can also ask them what they think of the schools that you have already been considering. This can be a good reality check, as you can get a feel for whether your goals would be feasible within your target companies.

Alumni
While alumni networks are often thought about in terms of securing employment after graduation, speaking with alumni in your area can be another way to learn about a school and whether it is the right place for you. Often, alumni clubs will have annual events to meet the year’s applicants, which can provide you with a great opportunity to meet both alumni and potential classmates. You should feel free, however, to contact the local alumni club outside of these events and see if there is someone who would be willing to talk to you about their experiences at business school. As informative as these discussions can be, however, you should keep in mind that the information you are getting might be out of date – especially if you are talking to someone who graduated more than a decade ago.

Rankings
There are a number of business school rankings available, and more appear every year. As with any rankings, there is a great deal of debate about what criteria should be considered, the extent to which rankings shape, rather than reflect, reality, and who should care about a school’s rank. For better or for worse, however, many people make decisions on the basis of ranks, from applicants deciding which schools interest them to professors deciding where they are willing to teach. The schools themselves also tend to put a great deal of effort into improving or maintaining their ranks.

Whichever rankings you decide to look at, it is important to keep in mind what, precisely, is being measured (and what is not being measured), and to interpret that information in the context of the other factors involved. In the end, we encourage you to come up with your own personal ranking which takes into account all of the factors which you consider important and all of the independent research you have done, and to base your decisions on that customized list of schools.