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I don't think "drive" narrows down the selection to elites and ultra elites. There are tons of very driven people following different paths to success. I know that I'm very driven, and my number 1 goal is Emory. There are many circumstances that can lead someone to apply elsewhere, and the information on this site can help them just as much as an elite school, if the information was available.
I could not agree with this more. For me, an elite was never an option, mostly because my husband and I live in Columbus, Ohio, he has a good job that he really likes and would not be willing to move somewhere else for 2 years. Also, a full-time program was not really an option since we really could not afford for me to stop working for 2 years because that would mean we'd have to sell our house, etc... Therefore, OSU Fisher PT MBA it is!
However, I do think that I'm a pretty driven person, which is what brought me to this site in the first place (plus, I'm also an information junkie and thoroughly research just about anything I plan to do!). And I can testify to the fact that for the few of us here who are not looking at elite schools, it can get a bit intimidating and/or irrelevent. I guess that I just keep reading and posting because I feel like I'm not not going to an elite because I'm not good enough, but because other life circumstances won't permit it.
However, A LOT of the information on this board regarding the GMAT and application process can still be aplicable to just about anyone thinking about going to b-school. I felt that reading about the GMAT and application process helped me to turn in the best application possible and also gave me a good idea of what to expect during the process.
One big reason, however, that I think that most of the conversation here revolves around elite schools is that there are obviously much fewer of them. Once you start getting into the NEF and lower, there are many, many more schools and therefore there would be fewer people interested in each one. Plus, and I hate to say it, I don't think that folks stress out quite so much about their application to Podunk U Business School as they would about H/S/W, etc...