European B-School Visits

Hi Malika,

Visiting the schools was an awesome experience. It provided a really a strong confirmation that my decision to study an MBA is right for me and it gave me a great deal more clarity than I previously had about which schools to apply for and of those which I would ultimately prefer to study at.

I think the thing that surprised me the most was how similar yet different the schools all were at the higher level. When you read online about school rankings and then actually visit the schools you see that the difference between 1-10 top schools in Europe is actually fairly limited in a lot of aspects, although each of the programs do have some unique aspects that could make it ideal or unideal for an individual (e.g. 1 year vs two year, cost, location, focus on entrepreneurship, banking or management consulting, access to unique markets like Cambridge Judge has with Silicon Fen, etc.). Based on my experience each of the schools have strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons, depending on your personality and circumstance each may be particularly good or not so good. Its really a personality or unique culture, more importantly than ranking (at least at the high level). I think they should publish some sort of b-school personality and ranking interactive data rather than just basic rankings to better inform MBA candidates and the public.

Given all this I strongly recommend visiting schools before applying, it helps you to know what you really want and what's best for you. If there is one thing Adcoms love to see, its someone who has done their homework and really genuinely knows which program is best for them and can clearly articulate why in their application and interviews. In my opinion (its yet to be proven ) that will significantly increase your chances for admission perhaps even far more than just good academics and so on (so long as these meet the required minimums).

Things I would recommend to keep in mind for visits:
1. Be open, be yourself - sounds lame, but seriously, do this and you will feel the difference between the schools, the feeling you have is equally important as the data analysis your are guaranteed to do before forking out 70,000 euros .
2. Prepare an elevator pitch - know who you are and why you want to study an MBA. If you don't explain why you are there the adcom or whoever shows you around is less likely to be able to help you and is more likely to feel its a waste of time. If you do this really well the adcom will tend to be far more personable and give far better insight and recommendations to you. You are also far more likely for them to watch out for your application and put positive comments on it. I wasn't so good at this at first, but after the first two I nailed it from then on. I had great experiences including adcoms strongly encourage me to apply and tell me that I was a likely candidate (confidence boost ). They also gave very personalised insights and recommendations that will really help in my applications.
3. Prepare good questions! - This is extremely important! Don't go there and ask them something like, What do I need to do to get admitted? (funnily enough everyone who they don't care if get admitted asks this). Prepare specific questions that relate to your circumstance, e.g. for me, What are the main management consulting firms you place MBAs in? What locations are common? Which of these employ English speakers who don't have a second language? Can you suggest an Alumni I could connect with that has made a similar career change I can connect with? How will your curriculum help me develop the financial management skills I currently lack that will help me be a successful in my desired career path? How can the school help me launch my business ideas? What opportunities are there for internships at my target companies? How does your program support MBAs with who come with family and children?
4. Don't be afraid to open up. Share strengths, weaknesses, things you want to change, and who you are (kind of relates to 2 and 3, because you want to ask them about who they are too). I had one informal interview in particular where the adcom was interested in my life experience and I in his and we related to each other in a lot of ways. We ended up talking about a whole lot of completely irrelevant non MBA stuff, even personal things like how you know its the right time to have children.... I never expected to have this conversation with an adcom. Looking back it was probably the most insightful of all my visits. Now I'm not suggesting ask every adcom about their personal lives, or how many kids they want to have, be wise about it obviously, but they really want to get to know a real person, its refreshing for them. Let them get to know you and get to know them as well. It will help you both if you can develop a real relationship and not just a boring 1 dimensional conversation!
5. Caveat Emptor! Remember that while you are giving an elevator pitch to help them get to know you and to in a sense sell yourself, the reality is that the whole meeting is there for them to sell you. You are the buyer, you are going to spend a lot of money, make sure you do your due diligence! Don't believe what the say just because they say it, and don't believe that just because the employment report says 90% had a job within 3 months that means they were happy with their experience or the job they got. Remember they created those metrics to make themselves look good. Again ask good questions to find the reality behind their sales pitch and stats. For example i frequently asked, " of the 25% who were placed in management consulting how many were from a consulting background?" and "How many were placed by career services vs those that placed directly through their own efforts?".
6. Visit more than one school. Contrast allows you to see truth. Its a big decision so make sure you have checked out at least a couple of options. I originally felt strongly I would study in France, after going their it was probably the part we enjoyed least of our trip (sorry to any French forum users), we just knew it wasn't for us. Only through visiting can you have that kind of experience and ultimately make an informed decision.

Hopefully my long answer helps, best of luck with SDA Bocconi! We loved Italy btw, it was amazing

Cheers,
Jish