Re: University shortlisting
[#permalink]
05 Dec 2013, 12:23
blackprince1 -
Rather than throwing out a bunch of school names, I'm going to suggest a few ways that you can find some options that are a good fit to your background and interests. Of the many ways to start short-listing programs, I'll start you with a few ideas . . .
Some will first look at rankings, and while that's not necessarily a poor approach, you should be sure to examine the methodology of each ranking and attend to those that are measuring data points that are most relevant to you and your priorities. BusinessWeek focuses on student and recruiter satisfaction and intellectual capital. Forbes focuses on graduate ROI after five years - literally compensation versus the cost of getting the degree. US News focuses on program reputation, admissions stats, and post-graduation employment results. Financial Times is a kitchen sink ranking that focuses primarily on salary, percentage salary increase post-MBA, and faculty research, but also such things as percentage of faculty with doctoral degrees, how many international students a program has, and how many women serve on a school's board. The Economist ranking focuses on career opportunities, quality of the educational experience, salary change, and quality of the school's network.
Since you commented that you want to make sure that you're looking at schools where you'll have a decent shot of being competitive, it's also important to see how your academics, most notably your GMAT, stack up relative to averages and programs' 80th percentile range of scores. With this dimension, the standard advice is to focus on schools where your GMAT score is at or above the GMAT average. However, with Indian candidates, it's essential to realize that you're coming from a rather over-represented part of the applicant pool, and the expectations are generally going to be different and higher since schools can typically be much more selective given the volume of applications that they receive from your part of the world. With your score of 700, I would consider programs whose average is around 670 - 680 to help ensure that your academics will really stand out positively.
A last resource I'll mention is mba DOT com. You're probably already familiar with this website since it's where you go to sign up for the GMAT, but an often overlooked resource is the website's "Find and Compare Schools" section. There are many filters available so you can be more targeted with your search.
I hope that helps, and good luck with your search!
Regards,
Jon