Welcome to MBA Podcaster—the only source for cutting-edge information and advice on the MBA application process. I’m Janet Nakano. Unlike a lot of us who didn’t put too much thought on where to go for undergrad, choosing an MBA program requires a thorough investigation of schools and of yourself. Your GMAT score and your GPA aren’t the only factors. How about cost, and location, and where you want to live and work? We’ll learn the various aspects to consider when researching an MBA program including recruiter relationships, accreditation, and teaching style. We’ll speak to three experts—a business school dean, a GMAT representative, and we’ll also hear from the head of the international business school accrediting organization.

Choosing the right school for yourself isn’t just a matter of the best school you can get in to. Sure—you might not pass up a chance to go to the #1 business school in the country. But without a proper assessment of yourself—who knows? You might not even like it when you get there. Daphne Atkinson is Vice President of Industry Relations for the Graduate Management Admission Council. She says before you choose a program, you have to define your expectations. “Because of the sheer number of program options that are available, there is without doubt an MBA program that can meet anyone’s expectations. But the strategy has to be to find those programs that can come the closest to meeting your top-five or so expectations. Another way to think about that is your ‘must-haves’. And the must-have list will vary. For one prospective student, location may be critical. They may be looking for a program that is close to where he or she lives or works or, alternatively, is located where he or she wants to live or work after obtaining the degree.”

James Strachan is author of the book “How to get into the Right Business School”. He’s also Associate Dean of the University Of South Florida St. Petersburg College Of Business. He says if you have a desired geographical location, you can look at well-known universities, (James) “but also two other types of universities within that geographical area. Specifically, there are always very strong regional, nationally-known universities. You’ve got the Pac-10 Schools, and the big names there, and the Big 12 now. You’ve got the South East Conference schools etc. But there are always very big, strong, normally state-based universities that are also going to have a heavy influence in the employment environment of an area. But also there are going to be smaller, very well-known, very well-respected universities within each geographical area that don’t make the national scene, but are very highly-respected in the major surrounding areas. Generally speaking, as with life, the bigger the institution; the more established the institution, the more structured the MBA admissions policies, and procedures, guidelines, etc. Smaller regional universities are generally more flexible in their policies. They consider a much wider range of persons, and backgrounds, and levels of accomplishment, grade points, GMAT scores, etc. So, they can generally be much more flexible in their admissions standards or expectations and adjust those more to the individual and who’s applying to them.”

MBA programs are designed to prepare you for a career in business, whether that’s in marketing, accounting, or you may even have a very specific field you want to go into. That means what you learn is another important consideration. Daphne Atkinson: “Faculty or curriculum might be a big decision factor. They may know of a faculty member on staff at a school that specializes in an area of interest, or will represent ability for someone to develop a functional specialty.”

Taking a look at what courses programs offer is a good idea. Strachan says if you know you want to go into a specialized industry, find schools that are strong in that area. “They may be strong in the Marketing, Human Resources; not as strong in Finance or conversely. And the same would be true for Production Management. Some schools do not have some particular areas of potential interest. For example, very few have majors or courses in Insurance, in Real Estate, in International Business, or Entrepreneurship—starting your own business. But, by the same token, other schools do have one or more of these very unique areas. So, almost all will have Accounting, Finance, General Management, Production Operations Management—at least some options—and, certainly, Marketing. So, you do need to sort of see what areas the school does have strengths in and if there are some very unique, specific interests such as Real Estate etc. You’d better make sure they’ve got it.”

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business is the accrediting association for Undergraduate, Master’s, and Doctoral business-degree programs. The AACSB International has accredited 527 schools in 30 countries—more than 400 schools in the U.S. alone. AACSB members evaluate schools every five years to make sure they’re upholding their mission and maintaining the quality of faculty and curriculum. The association hasn’t accredited some well-known schools such as the on-line MBA program at The University of Phoenix. But AACSB President and CEO, John Fernandez, says that doesn’t necessarily mean the school doesn’t provide quality education. “There are some challenges that The University of Phoenix has. It uses mostly part-time, or adjunct, or at-will faculty to deliver its live programs. And an important element of AACSB standards is that the faculty should prove their expertise as academics and as researchers. That makes it harder for Phoenix, though they certainly could apply for accreditation. But I would suspect that they would have difficulty in meeting faculty requirements. Another challenge is that Phoenix has extensive on-line-only delivery. Now, we accredit on-line programs but, of course, they’re subjected to the same standards as the live programs, and that might not be the right business model for a University-of-Phoenix type organization. I will tell you that University of Phoenix is not a diploma mill. We shouldn’t think that they are. They have serious curriculum development efforts, but they do not go through accreditation. They have not chosen to and it’s difficult for me to say why they haven’t done so.”

The AACSB has accredited on-line programs at Syracuse University as well as Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. But, Fernandez says, on-line programs do tend to have more difficulty getting accredited. “Very few business academics and practitioners who teach in academe feel comfortable with a completely on-line program. If you think about the socialization process of business school and working with others—not just in the classroom, but in consulting engagements and class projects—students are learning analytical skills, and communication skills, and how to work within a business context. On-line environments do work hard to simulate that through their chat rooms; through on-line interaction with their professors. But it’s still difficult to replicate, especially, when one considers that the entire program is on line. Many programs now are using what’s called a ‘blended format’; whereby, they have some of the content on line and some of it face to face. And this works very well for working professionals.”

If a school isn’t accredited by the AACSB but you’re interested in the program, Fernandez says make sure to do some of your own research. “If I were looking at a non-accredited school, first, I’d want to make sure that they were meeting my needs as far as the flexibility of the program is concerned. But I’d want to make sure that they had a good faculty and how they reviewed their faculty. I’d like to see that they had admission standards for students so that they didn’t just accept anyone. And I’d like to know something about the placement success of students who graduate and what students are doing from that school today that might have graduated ten years ago or longer.”

For most of us, money matters. Books, living expenses, fees and tuition all need to fit into the budget. Daphne Atkinson: “Whether they have the resources—whether that’s savings, or current earnings, or scholarship potential, or the ability to qualify loans to finance the degree…. And for still others, high-quality students are a must-have because that ensures that they, as a participant in the educational process, will have the best opportunity to obtain maximum value. And from where we fit, that means choosing a school that has selective admissions and uses the GMAT. What prospective students want to do is make sure that your peers are as smart and as capable as you are. That is, that you can teach them and they can learn from you. And the reason why that is so important is because those same peers are likely to become an important part of your professional network.”

Most business schools use case study work to some capacity says Atkinson. But there are those that put more emphasis on lecturing, while still others effectively combine both methods. She says it’s important to find out which teaching style suites you best. “A prospective student is actually the best expert on how they would like to learn. What I would urge people to do is to think back on peak learning experiences and understand what characterized them. Was it the course content? Was it the level of interest and engagement you brought to the material? Was it the teaching method? Was it the skill of the faculty member? And, most commonly, people will report that it is actually a rich mixture of all of the above. That’s why visiting a program and sitting in on classes can give you an important set of insights into what the learning experience would be. But because graduate school in general and business school in particular are so unlike the undergraduate experience, prospective MBA students really should keep an open mind about teaching methods and should try, if it’s all possible, to actually get some direct experience of them before deciding that one method will work better for them than another.”

If you plan to get a new job after getting your MBA, then it’s a good idea to find out about what recruiters go to that campus. Atkinson says you can find this out pretty easily. “You can ask. And, certainly, people are willing to share that information. And most schools will put their career management brochure which, actually, is a report on what the placement statistics are for the class that graduated. But most schools post that to their website. Most schools have a list even in their view books. It will include a list of their recruiters. Sometimes it’s a full list and sometimes it’s their top 20 recruiters. And by top 20 it means the recruiters that recruited the most students from their program. So, there are lots of ways to find out about who is coming to the program and where the graduates of the program have gone in terms of the careers they’ve pursued; particular industries or functions that they’ve pursued. And that information is widely available. You only have to look for it, or ask, and people are happy to share that.”

To start your research of MBA programs, rankings are one obvious place to look. AACSB’s John Fernandez says if you know what each ranking is evaluating, it can help sort out your choices. “The Wall Street Journal bases it whole ranking system on recruiters. So, you might decide to look at The Wall Street Journal rankings if you want to see what recruiters say. If you want a lot of data which is a little more of a cerebral assessment, you’d go to US News and World Report, and then if you wanted sort of a mix of student and recruiter opinions, you might go to the Business Week rankings. And they have good websites, too, so I would use these.”

Rankings are often on the minds of applicants. Daphne Atkinsons says it’s just one of many tools to use when deciding on a program. “The rankings are going to be what they are. They have been a factor on the landscape—we’re coming up on about 20 years. Rankings don’t reflect, in most cases, people’s must-have lists. And they present a very singular aspect of the business school universe. Not all programs are on there; not all program types are on there. And these tend to be fairly focused views of the market place. And for some students, that may be what they’re looking for. For other students who have highly personalized must-have lists, the rankings won’t be more than a point of departure for starting their research.”

Location, employment opportunities, budget, accreditation, and rankings are just some of the factors to consider when choosing a school. You’ll probably want to also consider environment, alumni networks, and student support like tutoring services or faculty availability. In choosing a school, Atkinson says you should take the time to weigh all of your options. “One way to think about is as if you were making a marriage. That school—whatever school it is—is going to be on your resume for your professional lifetime. You might want to start researching by using the web and visiting the sites of schools that you may have heard of. Start with what you’re familiar with. The council has the mba.com school search data base that is actually a searchable data base of programs where students can select key program criteria—whether that’s location, or program type, or program lists to search on. So, you can start there. You can also talk with MBA alumni that you may work with or know through your formal or informal networks. Schools also are a source of information. They offer things that are called ‘open information sessions’. And those are either held on campus or off campus. And you can visit school’s websites or the recruiting calendar on mba.com to find out about events that are scheduled to happen in your vicinity. Once you’ve done the research, you may actually be ready to visit a school; meet the current students; sit in on classes to determine the fit quotient. And that’s really important. You wouldn’t think about accepting a job with a company without having made a trip to the company’s offices to understand who you’d be working with. Well, a school is the same way. You wouldn’t want to choose a school—really—without actually trying it on for size. This is a major investment, and a wise investor is one that does a thorough amount of research. People already know what is critical to them. The best advice is when they start thinking about selecting a school; they should have their must-have list right in front of them.”

For more information, advice, and to register for your weekly MBA Podcast visit mbapodcaster.com. I’m Janet Nakano, and this is MBA Podcaster. Thanks for listening. And next time, we’ll find out how to calculate your ROI (Return on Investment) of an MBA.

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