Posted by Clear Admit on May 3, 2006, at 9:14 am
Posted in:  Which School Wednesdays Welcome to this week’s installment of Which School Wednesdays, a column we recently introduced to highlight content from blogs, our wiki and various discussion boards in which applicants, students and even alums are sharing their reasons for applying to or attending various MBA programs. Our objective is to identify valuable sources of school-specific information and help prospective students better understand the factors they should consider in making their decisions.
Following up on yesterday’s post about campus-specific considerations, a recent contribution to the School Choices section of the wiki by blogger MBA Spanky highlights the way that issues of location can help to break a tie between two great schools. In debating between UCLA over Duke, he considers his own preferences and past:
“I’ve been living in Durham for the past 6 years, so it kind of has a been-there-done-that feel. Even though I grew up 2 hours north of LA, I didn’t spend much time down there, nor have I really spent any significant amount of time back in California since I shipped off to Cambridge, MA, for college when I was 18. In addition to the newness factor, LA provides easy access to tons of companies that I think I want to work for. Even though it would be easier to stay in Durham and head to Duke, when have I ever done anything the easy way? Also, this change of scenery provides an even greater opportunity to have a truly “transformational” experience at business school.”
While narrowing the choice down to just one or two key factors undoubtedly makes for an easier decision, the truth is that school selection is a complex issue and that all things beside location are not so equal for most applicants. Meanwhile, one poster in a Business Week thread that was started by an applicant deciding between Stern and Chicago raises an interesting point about the decision process and the importance of keeping factors like brand and network in perspective when considering what really influences what a student will get out of the experience:
“The best advice I have heard about choosing schools is to choose whatever school you will be most involved in. Your level of involvement will determine how well you make use of the opportunities available to you, whether they be classes/trips/experiential learning/alum network/etc…
While one school might offer better opportunities than another in a particular area, if you don’t take advantage of them, its wasted. MBA brand name (I’ll be honest, I never heard of this idea before the BW boards, and I work in firm with MBAs from Harvard through U. of Phoenix), available classes, alum network, level of interaction w/peer group, should all be individual aspects of your decision (like GMAT score is one aspect of your application). Each will weigh more or less depending on your career goals and previous experience.”
It sounds as though blogger Where’s My Dessert has taken just this approach in making her decision between Stern and Sloan, carefully considering the factors that will have an impact on her experience (the people, the curriculum and the job prospects in her target field), eliminating those that would not (money and location, as both schools are urban) and ultimately selecting the one that makes the most sense for her (even if it means going against the grain):
“I know that Sloan is generally considered a “better” school (rankings, reputation, etc.). This factor is what kept me wavering for several days. Am I giving up the opportunity to attend a better school? Perhaps. Will I regret it later? I doubt it. Despite the intense focus by some people on rankings and the like, I realize that I ultimately should choose the business school that is best not for the general public, but the best for ME. And that school would be Stern.”
That content and confident note ends this week’s edition of Which School Wednesdays. As always, those applicants looking for personal advice on where to apply or enroll based on their priorities and goals are welcome to contact us directly or post an inquiry in our Business Week thread or the Studylink forum. Meanwhile, those of you who have made up your mind are encouraged to contribute insights and thoughts to the School Choices section of the Wiki.
Posted by Clear Admit on April 26, 2006, at 2:18 pm
Posted in: Which School Wednesdays Welcome back to Which School Wednesdays, a column we recently introduced to highlight content from blogs, our wiki and various discussion boards in which applicants, students and even alums are sharing their reasons for applying to or attending various MBA programs. Our objective is to identify valuable sources of school-specific information and help prospective students better understand the factors they should consider in making their decisions.
Particularly noteworthy is a new addition to the School Choices page of the Clear Admit Wiki in which an applicant details the way Wharton won her over when the program was initially not even on her radar screen. Preparing to apply after taking an advisor’s advice to investigate the program, she learned that one can learn a good deal about the prevailing attitude and pressing issues at a school by sitting back and taking in the candid opinions of current students:
“While researching the school, I became engrossed in the student diaries on the site, and in particular, I was intrigued by the grade nondisclosure debate. The many arguments in favor of grade nondisclosure convinced me that Wharton students really do value a cooperative culture, and the school’s willingness to host public debate convinced me that Wharton has the confidence in itself and its students to let the world witness its family squabble. By the time I finished my application, I still wasn’t sure that Wharton was the school for me, but I’d developed a respect for the open and straightforward culture of the school.”
Another recent contributor to the wiki explains the many factors that led him to settle on Darden, and applicant blogger FM has written a post detailing the factors that led him to target LBS as his first choice. He makes one especially interesting comment on the benefit of attending a program with a highly diverse group of peers as opposed to counting on connections with far-flung alumni:
“Becoming friends with people from all over the world (70% non US/UK) will ensure a life long network of places to visit, jobs to access, and cultures to experience. This shouldn’t be mistaken for looking up alumni – these will be people you personally know and have shared amazing experiences with.”
The value of connections with peers and classmates aside, alumni ties are a very significant consideration for many applicants. Though many focus on the number of living alumni, one Stanford aspirant on the BW boards made a nice point about this topic a few weeks ago:
“Strength of alumni network does not correlate to size. University of Phoenix would otherwise win this one hands down. You sacrifice alumni network responsiveness as you increase the size of the network. (By the way, HBS class size is almost 900, not 800). My brother graduated from HBS in ’03 and he can tell you that the responsiveness of the HBS alumni network — while not bad — is not as good as he expected. He also mentioned that the huge size of HBS made him feel a little lost in the crowd at times. Places like Tuck and Stanford have a much higher sense of community both on campus and among their alumni as a result of their much smaller sizes.”
While some have made up their minds, others are still deliberating based on their own instincts and others’ input. After attending admitted students functions at both Duke and Anderson and considering the pros and cons of each program, blogger MBA Spanky is still in a state of deliberation as to whether to prioritize academics or post-MBA opportunities. Similar quandaries abound on the Business Week message boards, as applicants consider their career goals in debating whether to reapply, or find themselves evaluating existing options anew in light of a change of future plans.
That concludes another edition of Which School Wednesdays. As always, those applicants looking for personal advice on where to apply or enroll based on their priorities and goals are welcome to contact us directly or post an inquiry in our Business Week thread or the Studylink forum. Meanwhile, those of you who have made up your mind are encouraged to contribute insights and thoughts to the School Choices section of the Wiki.
Posted by Clear Admit on April 19, 2006, at 9:09 am
Posted in: Which School Wednesdays Hello and welcome to the very first edition of “Which School Wednesdays,” a new weekly column in which we’ll be highlighting new and noteworthy web content relating to applicants’ thinking and decisions about which MBA programs they’ll apply to or attend. Closely related to the School Choices section of the Clear Admit Wiki, this new feature is being introduced with the hope that reading about others’ rationale will help applicants learn from the experiences of people who have been in their position, and perhaps lead them to consider elements they had not yet taken into account as they determine which schools to target and which admissions offer to accept.
A few weeks ago, blogger Nick Carraway posted an excellent entry about the factors that led him to choose to attend Fuqua over Sloan. While the allure of the MIT brand and network are undeniable, it’s also true that more immediate elements like geography and family ties are legitimate concerns as well. This post does an excellent job of explaining the way some “intangible” and relatively minor considerations that one might argue should not form the basis of such a major decision actually amount to a very significant advantage for Duke:
“Little factors, like North Carolina’s amazing weather, make a big difference on your overall quality of life. Also, my family is within driving distance of Durham, so my child might actually know her grandparents. Plus, Fuqua has amazing facilities and the most supportive partners program at any top B-school.
They say ‘Don’t make your decision based on the facilities… Or the weather… Or the housing… Or the location.’ Sage advice indeed, but at what point do all of those things add up to one very important factor? Duke just seems to have them all.”
Similarly, blogger AynRand2008 goes beyond the “normal” considerations to get to the heart of the quality of life question in choosing between Emory and Texas. Geography was less of an issue for MJ in making the call concerning Duke and Darden, as this blogger focused more closely on more basic issues of teaching method and preparedness for his goals. This excerpt is a great example of one person’s ability to assess his fit with a program based on self-knowledge and practical considerations:
“While I absolutely loved the case method class at Darden, I have to bear in mind that I was a silent participant which is very different from being in that class. Having never had any form of education based solely on the case method, I can’t be sure how I would react to it (Darden is 100% case based). Will I be able to put my inhibitions (such as thinking something is too silly to bring up or thinking something is too obvious or becoming self conscious) behind me and be able to be an active participant in class every single day? Class participation is a major part of the grades at Darden. One of the things I hope to gain from B school is to be able to go out of my comfort zone. To be able to challenge myself. I do not think questioning whether this teaching method is best from me, qualifies under shirking a challenge.”
Meanwhile, other applicants are still grappling with this decision, and turning to others for advice through the Business Week Forum and other channels, often creating a positive and productive discussion. In a thread started by an applicant deciding between Chicago and Columbia, the impressions of fellow applicants to and current students at the programs in question resulted in the original poster arriving at a much clearer articulation of the pros and cons of each school and the essence of the matter at hand:
“The most important criteria to me is how well the school will prepare me and position me to make a career transition to the buy side, and I know that there are several factors that drive this. I also know that I must be proactive, take initiative, and network in order to get that great IM/HF job I’m looking for, but certainly the school helps open the doors to those opportunities. The dilemma I face is that in the area of prestige/brand/reputation, particularly for finance and jobs on the buy side, Chicago appears to have a slight edge; however, Columbia wins for location, because the majority of HFs are in NY and CT, thus facilitating networking opportunities. I’ve also heard similar comments with regard to selecting Chicago if I am interested in quant asset mgmt.
So, the question becomes: do you choose the school with a slightly better brand (which, in turn, may open a few more doors for you) or the school where you can network with more firms more easily?”
That concludes this week’s edition of Which School Wednesdays. Those applicants looking for personal advice on where to apply or enroll based on their priorities and goals are welcome to contact us directly or post an inquiry in our Business Week thread or the Studylink forum. If you have made your mind up about where you are going, it would be great if you could contribute your insights to School Choices section of the wiki.
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