How to show love for a B school without visiting

In terms of gathering information, I agree with Becky - getting in touch with current students and alumni is a great way to get a feel for a school. The interns at your company will be a great resource. Also, many MBAs seem to know at least a few MBAs at other schools, so you can always ask them if they know anyone at other schools who would be good to talk to. Everyone I spoke to was eager to connect me to other people they knew, including those at other schools.

As for showing love, I think going to the info sessions and any other local events is enough, especially if you're outside the U.S. I couldn't take the time off work to visit schools out of state, and frankly didn't want to spend the money to visit schools across the country that I already knew I was applying to. When I went to the local Ross info session, I spoke with the adcom and told her that even though I hadn't been to campus, I was very excited about Ross and was definitely applying. I asked if she thought I should visit campus or save the trip for GBR (the admit weekend), and she said definitely save the trip for GBR. I wouldn't make a final decision to attend a school having never visited, but I think if you do your research and go to the local events, waiting to see where you get in and attending the admit events on campus is a perfectly fine strategy.

I think that what adcoms really want to see is that you've taken the time to interact with them as much as you possibly can.

If you can't visit the campus then you should send an email to the adcom introducing yourself, telling them how interested you are in their school, and asking some questions (be sure that you couldn't find the info on the web easily). Be aware that all of your correspondence will be kept on file so make sure you email is of high quality.

You should also try to interact with alumni in your area if possible, and with some current students. When I was researching My schools I tried to get in contact with some of the clubs that I might be interested in joining. I found that to be a great way to have some informal chats about the school, make some friends before you ever show up on campus, and have something else to talk about in your interview.

Finally, if your target school has an outreach event somewhere that it would be possible for you to get to then you should make every effort to attend.

Adcoms want you to be committed to their school, they want to be sure that if you are offered a place then you'll accept.

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Thanks for the input everybody. Much appreciated

I reached out to the Career Clubs but I think I'll write to the adcoms and ask if they can connect me to alumni in my area.

Outreach events will most likely be info sessions or MBA Fairs sometime in the end of September but will try to get most school research done through other means before that.

I would also like to add that the multi school MBA info sessions are very good for this. The info sessions are whatever, but if you skip one or two of those sessions right before the open table session you will be able to interact with higher ups in admissions and get your questions answered. At one of these events I was able to personally interface with top people in admissions from three of my target schools. Since I did this during the info sessions I could really talk to them about the school and personally connect without someone else breathing down my neck for their "turn". As a bonus I got free application vouchers from 2 of the three schools I spoke to. The name of the event I attended was "Inside the MBA" but these multi school events are pretty common.

Becky

Thanks Becky for the props

I attended a couple of info sessions when my plans for an MBA were in infancy and the content in the presentations seemed to be lifted straight off the website. The sessions sound like a good opportunity to interface with the admissions officers, alumni and current students though. Schools also have student ambassadors who can connect prospective students to alumni.

I checked the "Inside the MBA" website. They only do these fairs in the US. However, I signed up to receive news of any events my target schools will conduct in my area.