How to choose an MBA program?

The best way to choose an MBA is to know why you want to do it and have a clear understanding of the differnet schools. In this way you will be able to match the two and get the most out of your MBA.
It is important for you to pick the right school. At the end it is like a marriage, you will be forever an Alumnus of that school.

Important sources of knowledge about the Business Schools are:

• Business School Websites. See how the School present itself. I am adding the link to the top
  MBA schools from the FT 2009 ranking
  Warton: www.wharton.upenn.edu/
  London Business School: www.london.edu
  Harvard Business School: www.hbs.edu
  Columbia Business School: www0.gsb.columbia.edu
  Insead: www.insead.edu
  Stanford Graduate School of Business: www.gsb.stanford.edu
• Alumni of the schools. Look among your friends on facebook or linkedin or ask to your colleagues if someone is an alumnus of a school you want to explore
• MBA rankings. The major ones are:
  FT MBA ranking (http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings)
  Business Week MBA ranking (http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/)
• Blogs. Read carefully this blog and other blogs about MBAs

As soon as you start to have a clear idea of the strengths of each school you should build your list and consider variables like

• Do you want to study in the USA or not?
• Do you want to be inside a campus or in a major city (like London or New York)
• Do you want to do one year or two years (I chose two years, to have the opportunity to do a summer internship. This is particularly important for the career switcher)
• How important is the brand name of the school and its Alumni network for your future career?
• Which kind of teaching method do you prefer (only case studies or not)?

A tip is to made a list of the B-School you are considering and give a score for each variable you are considering, in this way you should be able to do your personal MBA ranking that will guide you in your choice and in the preparation of the applications.

My advice to choose the Business School for your MBA is to really think and imagine yourself in that particular city/school and understand if you would live there for 1 or 2 years. Will it be something that you will be proud of?