Monday, September 18, 2006

TOP MBA - Basis of Comparison

A lot of websites like business week, wall street journal, US news etc publish their ranking of business schools every year. However, no one actually publishes anything that exactly suits your specific needs. You will find ample text on how to choose a school and what matter while making a choice. But, what you don't get is a comparison of factors that matter to you.

All of us at the back of our mind know how to select the business school which best fit our needs. Even though we are computer savvy, most of us don't try to put it in a structured way. To analyze the strengths and focus areas of a business school is very necessary. But, how many of us actually try to enlist these in a way that suits our way of evaluation?

As an example, if you are a business man and your goal of MBA is to open up new ventures, then you are probably more interested in networking. But, again, it depends on what kind of network you are looking at. Automobile business? Consider Michigan university! Finance? May be Columbia or Wharton school. Remember, these are my thoughts. Similarly, when you read a standard ranking on a website there might be some assumptions made in the survey which may not apply to you. So, do not just follow them blindly. You would need a blend of inputs from various available resources configured in your way.

One of the easy solutions is to grab a computer and engage a standard utility/software like MS Word or excel to start putting points that matter to you most. Provide some standard headings to your baseline document. Using a standard questionnaire, note down what things are important to you. Then derive things that apply to you specifically. Start exploring the standard websites and their data. You know the rest of it....

Don't forget that the standard websites are invaluable sources of data to be channeled into a valuable information database.

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