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Choosing which MBA programs to apply to, and ultimately which program to attend, is a monumental decision at the end of your MBA search. Where you get your MBA affects not only your career, but your entire life. Moving across the country or staying close to home can impact personal relationships, your worldview, and one’s sense of self. Not to oversimplify a decision of that magnitude, but no matter the applicant, their MBA search and, ultimately, decision is made based on only five criteria:
Using myself as an example, I began my MBA search by focusing on regions with positive economic outlooks. Borrowing from the work of Dr Enrico Moretti at UC-Berkeley and Richard Florida at The Atlantic, I targeted schools close to these centers of innovation and productivity. From there I narrowed my list to those with highly-ranked entrepreneurship programs: my post-MBA goal. Not yet satisfied with my list, I drilled down even further, this time looking past entrepreneurship programs for schools with a global brand and an alumni network that can catapult me to future success.
The first three of these decision making criteria are logical in nature, but the last two are not. On the whole, most applicants will use media reports and school publications to facilitate their MBA search. At a point, however, emotional attachments to certain schools and outcomes will affect their decision. These factors will be different for everyone, but at least they’re easily identifiable. I, for one, enjoy college football - from an emotional standpoint, I would rather attend the University of Washington in Seattle than Washington University in St. Louis.
The last criterion, practicality, which is closely related to ROI, can more difficult to identify. As an MBA applicant, what am I worth? No one wants to end up without any offers, but you also don’t want to sell yourself short. While Stanford GSB and Texas McCombs both have highly ranked entrepreneurship programs, I chose to only apply to McCombs because of practicality. At the end of the day, that should be the final indicator of whether or not you’ve chosen to apply to the right school. And it isn’t a foreign concept. We use practicality every day: for instance, when we budget our finances or when we leave early for work if it’s snowing outside.
Practicality doesn't have to be a dream killer, however. If given the opportunity, I might choose to attend Stanford GSB’s entrepreneurship program over Texas McCombs’, but I’d still be honored to be a Longhorn. From an ROI standpoint, according to research published in the Journal for Education in Business, “Full-time MBA graduates from Top 50 schools typically realize starting salaries 50% higher than what they were earning in the year before starting business school. Then, over the next five years, their pay nearly doubles.” Certainly higher ranked schools yield a higher ROI, but attending a top-10 school isn’t essential.
Practicality not only extends to admissions, but also to whether or not you’ll succeed once you matriculate. Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book, David & Goliath, that one of the key factors in success is self-confidence. He uses the example of undergraduate test scores to explain: if two students both scored a 30 on their ACT, but one’s score placed him in the top 10% of his class and the other in the bottom 10%, the one in the top 10% will have more confidence – and therefore, more likely to be successful. From a confidence standpoint, being at the bottom is difficult, no matter where your diploma is from.
In short, attending a top-10 MBA program and having a successful career are independent of each other. I’m just as competitive as the next, but I didn’t apply to any top-10 schools. Everyone wants to learn alongside the best and the brightest, but you don’t have to be at a Top 10 school to do so. The students I met at the three schools I applied to – Michigan Ross, Texas McCombs, and Carlson School of Management at Minnesota – were all engaging and intelligent. I’m willing to bet I’d say the same about students at Harvard. The top-10 might not be the right fit for you, and that’s ok. Some of the most inspirational stories in history come from individuals of humble beginnings. All it takes is a dream and the work ethic to execute.
Decision Time: The End of Your MBA Search
By Jonathan Taves
Updated September 5, 2019 Updated September 5, 2019Choosing which MBA programs to apply to, and ultimately which program to attend, is a monumental decision at the end of your MBA search. Where you get your MBA affects not only your career, but your entire life. Moving across the country or staying close to home can impact personal relationships, your worldview, and one’s sense of self. Not to oversimplify a decision of that magnitude, but no matter the applicant, their MBA search and, ultimately, decision is made based on only five criteria:
Using myself as an example, I began my MBA search by focusing on regions with positive economic outlooks. Borrowing from the work of Dr Enrico Moretti at UC-Berkeley and Richard Florida at The Atlantic, I targeted schools close to these centers of innovation and productivity. From there I narrowed my list to those with highly-ranked entrepreneurship programs: my post-MBA goal. Not yet satisfied with my list, I drilled down even further, this time looking past entrepreneurship programs for schools with a global brand and an alumni network that can catapult me to future success.
The first three of these decision making criteria are logical in nature, but the last two are not. On the whole, most applicants will use media reports and school publications to facilitate their MBA search. At a point, however, emotional attachments to certain schools and outcomes will affect their decision. These factors will be different for everyone, but at least they’re easily identifiable. I, for one, enjoy college football - from an emotional standpoint, I would rather attend the University of Washington in Seattle than Washington University in St. Louis.
The last criterion, practicality, which is closely related to ROI, can more difficult to identify. As an MBA applicant, what am I worth? No one wants to end up without any offers, but you also don’t want to sell yourself short. While Stanford GSB and Texas McCombs both have highly ranked entrepreneurship programs, I chose to only apply to McCombs because of practicality. At the end of the day, that should be the final indicator of whether or not you’ve chosen to apply to the right school. And it isn’t a foreign concept. We use practicality every day: for instance, when we budget our finances or when we leave early for work if it’s snowing outside.
Practicality doesn't have to be a dream killer, however. If given the opportunity, I might choose to attend Stanford GSB’s entrepreneurship program over Texas McCombs’, but I’d still be honored to be a Longhorn. From an ROI standpoint, according to research published in the Journal for Education in Business, “Full-time MBA graduates from Top 50 schools typically realize starting salaries 50% higher than what they were earning in the year before starting business school. Then, over the next five years, their pay nearly doubles.” Certainly higher ranked schools yield a higher ROI, but attending a top-10 school isn’t essential.
Practicality not only extends to admissions, but also to whether or not you’ll succeed once you matriculate. Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book, David & Goliath, that one of the key factors in success is self-confidence. He uses the example of undergraduate test scores to explain: if two students both scored a 30 on their ACT, but one’s score placed him in the top 10% of his class and the other in the bottom 10%, the one in the top 10% will have more confidence – and therefore, more likely to be successful. From a confidence standpoint, being at the bottom is difficult, no matter where your diploma is from.
In short, attending a top-10 MBA program and having a successful career are independent of each other. I’m just as competitive as the next, but I didn’t apply to any top-10 schools. Everyone wants to learn alongside the best and the brightest, but you don’t have to be at a Top 10 school to do so. The students I met at the three schools I applied to – Michigan Ross, Texas McCombs, and Carlson School of Management at Minnesota – were all engaging and intelligent. I’m willing to bet I’d say the same about students at Harvard. The top-10 might not be the right fit for you, and that’s ok. Some of the most inspirational stories in history come from individuals of humble beginnings. All it takes is a dream and the work ethic to execute.
This article was originally published in March 2015 . It was last updated in September 2019
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Jon Taves is a CPA from Minneapolis, MN. He writes weekly about business-related topics, including his MBA journey, at EFEssays.com.
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