Argh! What are Schools Good At???

Haha, I'm just a little frustrated after reading through "MBA Game Plan" and "Business Week Best MBA Schools (2003)". I've been looking through websites, those two books, viewbooks, and any other online source that I can find (rumors, GMAT Forum posts, etc...), and it seems like many ultra-elites and elites use the "General Management" style curriculum these days, and while some of them are strong at finance or marketing, they've all been strengthening their other stuff.

With that said, can someone suggest a good way to cut through the rhetoric (of course every school will say they're strong at everything) and really understand what a school's strengths are?

I'm assuming that graduation placement is one way, but if I'm looking for entrepreneurship or international business, some schools don't really have a category for that or say "not enough info", which makes sense.

Another way is to talk to students and alumni, but then again, *most* students will say their school is strong at what they study (assuming I talk to those people doing programs I"m most interested in), otherwise why would they have chosen that school? Maybe you can find a disgruntled student here and there who will say that the program wasn't as good as he/she thought, but those chances seem rare.

Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out which schools to apply to outside of Stanford, Berkeley, and UCLA. I'm starting to understand what I'm looking for:

General Management style curriculum, lots of flexibility, with programs/certificates in entrepreneurship and international business/global management. Stanford, Haas, and UCLA all have that. After Rhyme's detailed explanation about Chicago, and more reading on Kellogg, they have that too. Heck, even NYU, which I've sometimes read is more focused on finance and entertainment, now has a strong Int'l Biz/Entrepreneurship/General Management/flexible curriculum.

Is it that every school is becoming "the same" nowadays? How does one choose which schools to apply to if there's not much differentiation in strength anymore?

Is this something that can be found out by visiting the school? Any ideas anyone? =)

Thank you!