FredstarRR233 wrote:
Besides the rankings here and the more commonly known ones from Financial Times, how am I to determine if a certain school is good or not if it's not in the the more known top 50 or 100 rankings' lists.
I'm trying to be realistic with my chances based on my credentials and potential GMAT score. If I'm looking at plan B's for mid-tier schools, how can I judge their quality? For instance, since I want to go to school in Europe, hopefully in Spain, EAE has popped up and it is part of AACSB, AEEDE, and is #2 ranked on MERCO and top 50 rated by American Economia but it doesn't require the GMAT to the application. Is this a good school or not?
Coming from India I can understand your concerns. Here the first evaluation is on the basis of ranking. Each B schools ranking uses specific sets of factors to rank them, thus until your requirements align with the factors they are not that useful. I suggest my students to create their own list of factors of doing an MBA like:
1) Industry
2) Profile
3) Linguistic/geographical and other barriers
4) Budget
This should help in creating a primary list of schools that you would target. Once you have your score you can further filter your list. It would also help to look into the current economy of the region too.
In terms of European schools please also understand most school in Europe do not require a GMAT score, it is an add on. This isn't the same as in USA where GMAT is a necessary requirement to apply to a top B school. European schools are good too however they serve very specific industries/ profile.