School Visits - American Living Abroad

Guys,

I can give you my feedback for what it’s worth. I am French and I was in China when I decided to apply for business school. I target more or less the top 8 schools (US only). I didn’t travel to the US at that time, as you mentioned it is very expensive to do so and the reward/benefit for doing so didn’t seem strong enough in my view. Instead I spent most of my time contacting alumni form each school, I contacted a ton of them, kept a spreadsheet with all the details, ... Some schools are also quite strong in different countries overseas and I was able to get in touch with alumni in China and HK which was great.
Ultimately if the schools are interested you will be asked for an interview: either from alumni or from official recruiting coordinators if the school send some overseas. In my case Tuck sent someone to Beijing and although it was quite far from my home at that time (Shenzhen, 2000km+ far away ) I insisted on making the trip and interviewed there although someone from their team mentioned that they would have totally understand if I hadn’t come. For 2 other schools (Wharton and Chicago GSB) I met with alumni in HK for a formal interview.

Bottom line is that if you can’t or don’t want to visit schools in the US it is totally fine but the school will expect you to find alternative ways to show your interest. Ultimately you are in great position, I believe candidates based in a different location than their home countries have a significant advantage during the interview since you can use a lot of interesting stories and experiences which are usually a lot more interesting than what a banker/consultant can say if he has spent his all life in his own country doing the same type of work (no offense intended against bankers and consultants).

Good luck !

Hi Antoine,

Thank you so much for your reply, very kind of you. I have already booked my business trip to US and have squeezed in a few school visits as only some of them offer them during the summer break. I will be going to Stanford, Columbia, NYU, Booth and Kellogg. I will attempt to go back to the States in the fall and try to go to HBS and Sloan while they are in session. I really appreciate your feedback regarding getting in touch with alumni abroad. I have already met a few through friends but with the limited expat community in Singapore I am finding it difficult to find alumni of certain schools like Stanford. Could you please give me some tips on your approach? How did you get the contact information for the alumni? I do not want to inuandate them with cold emails. Appreciate your feedback in advance.

Vam

Vam,

In most cases you can contact the school and explain your situation, they will certainly support you and provide you with a few names if they have someone in your area. Another way is too Google and to find if the school or the alumni have some presence (for example there is one Stanford Alumni Club in Singapore), from that you can see who is a member or at least who are the people in the club committee and try to get in touch with them. To be honest given the size of singapore you might even know or have some connections through a few people with maybe a few of those alumni. If you can get some recommendation from someone or some suggestion from the school then it’s better but even if it’s a cold email I don’t see any reason why someone would not try to discuss with you regarding your interest for his/her school.

Appreciate your feedback again, Antoine. I guess I could also ask the schools I'm visiting next week for some names as well. Thanks again.