The decision to pursue an MBA degree from a popular business schools is one of the most critical monetary investments you will make during your career. Therefore, it is essential to select the program that not only adds value to your resume, but also matches up on to post-MBA goals. What exactly should you consider while deciding in on an MBA program? Surely, the rankings do help, but should you depend entirely on the ranking?

Given below are a few things you must do in order to determine the best MBA program and institution for yourself:

Order the institutions on the basis of your needs:  Merely following the business schools rankings released by USA Today, Financial Times etc will lead you in trouble. Use them for reference, but we  suggest that you compile your own list of institutions, ordered according to your priorities. That is to say, that you create a table of the things you expect out of the MBA program and checkmark the criteria that an institution under consideration satisfies. The end result will be more like a matrix, which will make the task of selecting the institution easier.

Comprehensive research: Carry out comprehensive research on the criteria you have selected for each and every institution under consideration. Search not only online, but also through other media also. Check the forums for the real picture and insider information for all the institutions. Dig more deeply into the data and do not just rely on what the institutions’ official website says. This is an era where marketing has swept off the ethicality from everything.

Use social media to get in touch with the alumni and the students studying at these institutions and ask about the regular lifestyle there, the quality of education imparted, the infrastructure etc.

Campus Visits: Though you may consider it as wastage of time and money, campus visits do help a lot. You get to see the institution and experience the ambience there. Even if you have made up your mind completely about joining a MBA program in a particular institution, do visit the place before taking the admission. Finalizing the admission details without actually having visited the college campus is like buying products over the internet. It is not necessary that they be of perfect fit every time or they turn out to be the same way they look on the online shopping site.

Stanford Graduate School of Business dislodged the Harvard School of Business from the number 1 position to emerge as the top business school in the US. The fresh B-school rankings were released by the US News and World Report just a few days back. Last year, in a stalemate of sorts, Stanford and Harvard were tied together for the coveted top position. This year, Stanford emerged as a clear winner over HBS by two index points, 100 vs. HBS’s 98. Read more…