How on earth do you shortlist your colleges?

but what is screwing me up is the fact that, they don't go to any campuses for the leadership programme. You have to apply online, pass 5-6 rounds of interviews,aptitude tests & psychometric tests to get in. And its upto the organization where they send me out of the 87 countries in which they operate. So location isnt something I can really focus on. Sure HBS can get me recognition in upper mongolia but realistically there is one thing I have realised, I dont have the 'minerals' to get into HBS.

So I am basically going to be leveraging heavily upon my past association with the organization and then showcase the skills I acquired doing an MBA and how I can be a valuable asset for them to rehire in a senior leadership position. (I have been told by senior HR that i have a strong chance, so kind of confidant in that regard)

So given my slightly weird yet well defined career goals. All the colleges in the top 30 seem the same. I dont care about the place the college is, the placement figures or most of the other factors most ppl fret about and thats one of the main reasons why I cant come up with a list of colleges I should aim for! The best I have come up with is this:

Super stretch : Insead(R2)
Stretch : Darden(R1), ISB(R2)
Normal - Stretch : Emory(R2), Mccombs(R1) ,NUS(r1) and Nanyang(R1)
Safety : None! frankly, A safety for me would be the worst-best college that I would want to go to and there isnt a single one that comes to mind!!

BusinessWeek Stats (presumably Class of 2009)

Top Recruiting Organizations:
Insead: McKinsey - 97
Emory: Deloitte Consulting - 6

World Placements:
Insead: 7% North America
Emory: 94% North America

But these schools are the same, and there's no way they can be distinguished from each other given your career goals?

You should take riverripper's advice. Programs have different track records with majors, they are not all the same. Applicants aren't busting down Kellogg's door to get into finance, because their track record is phenomenal with consulting and marketing. Doesn't mean you can't do finance at Kellogg, or marketing at a school such as Stern, but you'd be wrong to assume your post-MBA "chances" are the same at both schools.

If location is irrelevant to you, and you're pinning all your hopes and dreams on this one organization, you need to find out which MBA programs are feeders. Intensive testing and off-campus recruiting doesn't render your program brand as irrelevant.

And consider what happens if you don't get into your dream firm? I bet you'll think the programs are different then.