For many people, securing entry into a school with a world-renowned reputation is the most important consideration in the school selection process. For others, it may be a specialization in a certain field, the strength of the alumni network, career resources, or the location. It can be confusing to understand which factors are the most important and which programs will best prepare them to reach their career goals. Complicating the decision further is the challenge of understanding how strong one’s candidacy is for a given program. This blog post will share several ways to gather information and perspectives that can help you target schools that fit your goals and your profile.
Read School Ranking Lists
School ranking lists are a common starting point for prospective applicants and they can provide a helpful snapshot of how a program is perceived in the competitive landscape. However, school rankings are far from a one-stop solution for helping you understand how strong of a fit a program is for you. To begin with, it’s important to understand that there are several rankings and they all use different criteria with which to evaluate schools. While one source may heavily weigh starting salaries for graduates, another might rate peer reviews most significantly, and still another could take alumni feedback to be its most important barometer. So instead of taking a given ranking to be a guiding data point, try to use these lists to inform your own list, not to make a final decision. For example, if you are already considering certain schools, reviewing a set of rankings can reveal other schools that have a similar reputation.
Review Class Profiles and Employment Reports
Every MBA program and many other graduate programs produce annual class profiles and employment reports, which offer statistics on median test scores, demographics, post-graduation employment rate, salary information, and more. These reports are easy to find and can be located with a simple internet search. This MBA Class Profile from MIT Sloan is a good example of this kind of document, offering clear information about their next incoming class. By reviewing these reports, you can get a better understanding of certain aspects of the program, such as which industries graduates commonly go into or how focused the program is on striking a balance between male and female or domestic and international students. If you expect to work in the pharmaceutical sector, for example, and you are targeting top-25 MBA programs, studying employment reports would inform you that Duke Fuqua and North Carolina Kenan-Flagler send a lot of professionals into the medical and pharmaceutical fields but Chicago Booth and UT-Austin McCombs don’t.
Talk to Alumni and Students
While school rankings, class profiles and employment reports offer useful quantitative data about programs, students and alumni are invaluable sources of qualitative information. As you are narrowing your list, it’s wise to seek out one or two alumni or current students who you can ask about their experiences. If you don’t know anyone personally, most universities are eager to invite you to talk to a current student and you can readily find pages like this one from Imperial College London that offer direct connections to several student ambassadors. LinkedIn is another great tool that allows you to quickly search by school name, location, industry and several other factors, and then send a connection request and a personalized note. Students and alumni can help you get a real understanding of what the program specializes in, what the classroom approach is like, and opportunities offered or created by the program that you could not find just by browsing the program website.
Attend Info Sessions
As you get closer to finalizing your list of schools, attending info sessions can be especially informative and often provide the chance to ask questions to admissions committee members, professors, or current students. Schools frequently offer online sessions and they can generally be easily found on the program website, like this one from NUS. Many schools encourage their alumni to hold more informal coffee chats as well. Some seasons are busier than others for info sessions, so if you don’t see any upcoming events, look for a place to sign up for a newsletter or even start an application, which will put you on the school mailing list.
Designate Dream Schools and Safe(r) Schools
If you’ve reviewed Class Profiles and Employment Reports, and talked to some students and alumni, then you will have a good idea of how your test scores, GPA, and career experience stack up against the students at the schools on your list. While every applicant will have their own application strategy and goals, many people identify which schools on their list they would label Dream Schools – programs that they love but might only have a 10-15% chance of being admitted to – and which are Safe Schools, which are programs that they are excited about and feel more confident about being admitted to. Categorizing your schools this way can help clarify your application strategy and maintain a realistic idea about what your outcomes might be.
[Conclusion]
School selection can feel a bit overwhelming at the beginning of the process with so many excellent programs to choose from and so many aspects to consider. But by systematically collecting information and evaluating your background and goals against that information, you can devise an application strategy that you can feel confident about and make educated decisions.