How to choose an MBA

This week the Financial Times (FT) published its highly regarded Global MBA rankings, [i] which has become an influential driver for choosing where to apply for an MBA. Della Bradshaw, the FT business education editor who launched and led those rankings over the past seventeen years, is stepping down from this job and deserves recognition for her contribution to the transparency and comparability of business education on a global basis, from an independent and authoritative perspective.

Business schools rankings, if conducted according to the basic principles of impartiality, transparency and consistency, add real value to the market. Different stakeholders –prospective students, recruiters and corporate clients- see rankings as additional criteria to gather further information and make the educational offerings more easily comparable. One of the virtues of rankings is that they provide information to reduce the scope of the analysis for applicants. For example, they may help identify which are the institutions best regarded in America, Asia or Europe, or which business schools excel in a certain management discipline or which MBA programs are better considered by some selected recruiters.

But, apart from rankings, which other criteria are helpful for those who are searching where to apply for an MBA? After all, the MBA represents a very unique opportunity not only to acquire or update the basics of the major management disciplines but also to experiment and expose oneself to new and different things. It is a time of preparation and transformation for the future.

I describe below the criteria mostly considered when applying for an MBA:

-Reputation is the fundamental reason for picking a particular school. At the end of the day, your own personal reputation will be associated to that of your school throughout your life. Business schools’ prestige is based on their academic muscle and visibility among key business stakeholders, and reflected in their accreditation by international agencies such as AACSB or EQUIS, and also in rankings.

-Location is one of the key criteria that applicants use for narrowing down their choices. Of course, a key decision is whether to study in your home country or abroad. My recommendation is that, if you don`t have family or professional responsibilities that anchor you at home, you choose to apply for a business school abroad. This experience in a foreign country will provide you with the opportunity of learning a different culture, maybe an additional language, and widen your cross-cultural skills.

As regards the actual place of the school campus, you may choose between business schools located in big or small cities, or in the country. My preference is for a business school embedded in a major city, since I believe that experienced students value living in the heart of social life, close to where business decisions are made, and benefitting from a wide offer of cultural and social activities.    

-The Experience is one of the most important aspects of any MBA program: Life on campus, meeting and forging friendships with other students and members of the school’s community, taking part in extra-curricular activities, absorbing the values of the institution in question and sharing its ideals are just some of the more notable aspects of study, and which will also allow future employers to identify graduates. In parallel, the access to different networks and activities outside the classroom are key elements that enrich the whole learning experience.

-Duration The trend confirmed in this year’s FT MBA ranking, is the climbing up of one-year MBA programs. There are good reasons why one-year MBAs are gaining ground. First, an MBA is no longer seen as the last chance to experience education, and lifelong learning should be the norm for managers. Second, the opportunity cost for students of being out of the market for more than one year is becoming increasingly high. Third, many analysts believe that one-year MBAs satisfy the basic needs provided by the two-year ones: in one-year programs participants seem to be covering the same things as those of two-year programs but at twice the speed. In fact, many times graduates of one-year MBAs meet their fellows of two-year programs during recruiting processes with equal chances of being hired by the same companies.

-Contents. Interestingly the content of most schools’ MBA programs is a great deal more similar than might appear. This is partly explained by the market’s standardization of programs, and by the demands of the accreditation agencies. That said, it is the balance or special blend of core courses, electives, learning methods and teaching materials what makes a school stand out from its competition.

If there are few substantial differences between the content of the many MBA programs on offer, then how do schools differentiate themselves? They do so mainly by the emphasis of their core courses, by focusing on some particular area (e.g. entrepreneurship), by offering some courses that differ from the traditional, and above all by offering a range of elective courses to build on the basic concepts developed in the required curriculum.

-Financial schemes. MBA fees are high, particularly at leading schools. Hopefully, tuition at business schools is related to the salary evolution of graduates over the first five years after graduation. For those of us who are not be the best possible applicants, who may be granted scholarships, a reason for choosing a school is the access to attractive and flexible loan schemes.

Finally, a very reliable test for choosing a school is the direct testimony of a friend who has graduated there, who may tell you the pros and cons of his experience –every business school has both.

Notes

 [i] https://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-ranking-2016