University short-listing

Applying to the right university is one of the most important steps in your journey towards a great career. Always put enough research before deciding to apply. Key points that you must considering to apply are:

• Whether the University offers concentrations of your choice (that is if you are clear about the concentration you want)
• How old is the university.
• Profile of faculty members
• Profile of students- average age, average work experience etc.
• Curriculum-have a look at the flow of the course and the electives that the school offers.
• Record of performance of students from last 3 batches.

Generally, all of the aforementioned information is available in the university’s website.

Now, from a personal point of view, you must introspect your constraints, preferences, and requirements and use them accordingly to narrow down your list of universities. The factors you must consider are:

• Learning- Never compromise on this front!
• Duration- Length of MBA programs varies from 10 months to 21 months. A shorter MBA is a good option for highly experienced people or for those who are extremely clear about what they wish to do after their MBA.
• Expenses- Yes, it’s an important factor to be considered.
• Location- Some people have serious constraints such as staying in India/Asia. Many want to be in English speaking nations or developed nations. Hence, please ponder enough.
• Brand Value- A very important factor for people who intend to grow in the hierarchy of big companies.

Try to find a balance among the aforementioned five factors and I assure that you will shortlist universities that suit you!

Remember a basic rule for university Short-listing- do not avoid the rankings and do not trust the rankings! All the rankings are skewed towards one geographical location or other. Hence, refer many rankings. Here is a list of the most reputed B school rankings:

• Business Week
• Financial Times
• US News (For US B-schools only)
• Wall Street Journal (For US B-schools only)

Apart from these rankings, following are the other good sources to know about universities:

• Topmba.com- A very good site for knowing about colleges, their requirements, and the offerings. Use its B school scorecard option, it really helps.
• Pagalguy.com- It does not have a global ranking or reviews of colleges. But it has a great user base. People from great schools are members (including me) of this forum. Hence, you can search for members in schools of your choice and leverage.

How the enrolled students benefit?

I help my enrolled students in short-listing their universities according to their profiles and personal preferences. Anybody who follows the guidelines on this page carefully, can shortlist universities efficiently.