Dear All,
I am using this method to select schools. Please let me know your comments on this.
Proceed if you wish to work after your B School. If you have plans of pursuing a fellowship in the field, this is not the suggested path.
Make a list of 15 schools that seem appealing to you. Let’s go by the names that your dreamy eyes and ears have always attached to as a magnet does to metal. If these schools are in the top 35 in the world, Good!* If not, lets dream bigger. You are investing time, money and effort.
For all you know, you might be way more worth than what is your mirror’s evaluation of you. Forget every other aspect such as budget, locations, does it snow or not, etc. These are important, very important, but not at this point of time.
Now, go through the employment reports of these schools. The better the analysis in this phase, the better is your application’s justification. Your applications should at least answer “Why are you interested in a particular school” and “How can the school benefit from you”. But, don’t stress upon these at this stage. Make a simple sheet with all the names at the left and the 12 columns that you need to fill for each of these schools. Each employment report would take 2 - 3 minutes to find this answer. Give 45 minutes to this analysis - this might just change your life. A GMAT score is important. What differentiates one in the crowd is the conviction and the honesty - an employment report equips you with the much needed information before you enter into the battleground.
Make a note of the top 3 types of companies, by volume, across field and function.
For example,
Type of companies that hire the most are - technology, healthcare and retail. (3 columns)
The three functions that companies mostly hire for - marketing, sales, consulting. (3 columns)
Also, create a similar top 3 types of companies, by pay scale, across field and function.
For example.
Type of companies that pay the most are - technology, healthcare and retail. (3 columns)
The three functions that get paid the most - marketing, sales, consulting. (3 columns)
If you don’t find these answers to any one of them, have a look at the FT ranking statistics, not the ranking of the B School. You are likely to find the statistics about salary post your B School education.
Now assess your interests and disinterests. You are in the job fair of these schools.
Which job fairs would you like to miss? You can go to only 10 out of the top 15 that you have selected.Also, if you have an inclination towards a particular company you would like to work for, you
Tie Breakers:
1. BUDGET - This needs the emphasis, sincere apologies for the bold letters.
2. If you have a non-inclination toward any of the various fields of MBA, then you could filter the schools accordingly. For example, I am not interested in operations and finance - Krannert and Sloan may not be in my top 10 list.
3. Consulting vs Non Consulting: While there is no fixed rule in selecting a school, but having a clarity of this helps answer the long term goals well enough. Of course, once in the school nobody cares that what you wrote in your statement of purpose regarding you consulting vs non consulting.
4. Companies that you want to work for.
5. Sector you wish to work for
6. Geography you wish to work in
7. The list goes on. People can create numerous excuses to go for what they actually want, which they do not realize unless they eliminate every other available option. If you plan, there are scholarships to help out. Indeed, a B School Ed does not come for peanuts, but I believe one has to take a leap of faith at one point in life, in this case the horse being ourselves. (Being is not a correct usage on the GMAT)
*(I believe FT, The Economist, US News, GMAT CLUB are authentic - Do not refer to Forbes, FInd-MBA.com).
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Fais de ta vie un rêve et d'un rêve une réalité