How to choose a Business School : Key Factors

Getting an MBA from one of the world’s top business schools will provide you with a coveted distinction.

Because no two programs are alike, exploring your options effectively and efficiently means deploying a strategic research process. So, what aspects are most important for your decision-making and how do you create a target list of schools?

First, your shortlist of MBA programs should reflect your individual priorities and needs. All b-school admission committees are trying to identify why you want to go to business school and why their program. You’ll need to take the time for honest introspection to be able to reply with confidence and authenticity.

To do this you’ll need to reflect on your strengths, values, motivations and career goals. Your future objectives and individual ambitions are the first filter for distinguishing the information that’s most relevant, useful and practical to you.

Doing your homework is paramount, which is where things can get tricky. Many candidates are misled and rely too much on MBA rankings, which can be subjective and vary in terms of methodology. So, you need to do thoughtful research to find the right MBA for you.

Here are the LQ’s key factors to consider for a successful research process:

Using ROI to tell the difference

One definition of ROI is that it is “the total earnings minus the cost of the degree, minus the average earnings over the person with only a high school education.” Another definition says that ROI is “the difference between the 20-year median pay for a bachelor’s grad and 24-year median pay for a high-school grad minus the total four-year cost of attendance.”

In its “Best-Value Colleges” list prepared as part of its 2018 College ROI report, PayScale provides a list of colleges that can help students with comparative returns on their college-education investments. Its analysis takes into account the 20-year net ROI of a degree, total four-year cost of attendance, graduation rate, typical number of years to graduate, and the average loan amount.

The list, which provides the names of as many as 1,878 colleges, puts two US service academies in the first, second, and fourth positions. The top 25 includes MIT (third, ROI $1,015,000), Harvey Mudd College (sixth, $978,000), Colorado School of Mines (eighth, $909,000), and Caltech (tenth, $887,000). Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus (12^th, $856,000), Stanford University (16^th, $811,000), Princeton University (18^th, $797,000), and Harvard University (25^th, $760,000) are some others at the top.

The bottom of the list should also be a revelation for students looking for college admission. It helps identify colleges that don’t promise a great ROI for their students’ investment. From rank 133, the ROI starts to fall below $500,000; and from rank 1456, to below $100,000. From rank 1752, the ROI goes into negative. At the dregs of the list are Mississippi Valley State University (rank 1,878, ROI $ (minus) 174,800) and a host of private colleges with negative ROIs running above $100,000.

Of course, it is no one’s argument that only majors with the highest earnings potential and colleges with the best ROIs can provide high-value college degrees. However, these majors and colleges should be on top of the minds of students, particularly of those who go in for huge education loans or depend on their family for funds or on their own savings. They are well-advised to examine the financial success of the alumni of their target college before they decide.

The Leap Quest methodology rewards schools for subjecting themselves to analysis by all five of the most influential rankings. Some 42 out of the 100 ranked MBA programs were ranked on every major list. That approach penalizes schools that deliberately refuse to participate in rankings where they may be at a disadvantage or that fail to gain a rank because the institution’s MBA program isn’t good enough to make every list.

The methodology also favors more fact-based ranking systems that depend on qualitative data that measures the quality of incoming students, their career outcomes as graduates and the return-on-the-investment given MBA tuition costs and scholarships. Rankings heavily based on opinion in surveys completed by students who know their answers will be used to rank their alma maters are given less weight.

Click Here To See the Top 100 Rankings

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