Appendix IIAppendix IIFew people will consider all of the following criteria to be important, but they are listed here to spur your thinking about what you would most like in a program. The most important criteria will depend on your specific needs, but on average they include course offerings, school reputation, location, academic atmosphere, school size, facilities, and teaching quality. The two items that applicants tend not to weight heavily enough are the learning atmosphere, for reasons discussed in the body of the chapter, and the quality of the career services function, because schools of equal quality and reputation tend to have very different rates of success in placing their graduates in desirable companies and positions.
Culture. Doing an MBA at Darden (University of Virginia) will provide a substantially different experience from doing one at Haas (University of California, Berkeley), due to far more than geography. The same is true regarding Judge (Cambridge) and IE (Spain). The differences will be due in large part to the schools’ cultures, the result of their different student bodies, faculties, histories, missions, surrounding environments, and so on. Even though it is not always easy to assess a school’s culture, especially from a distance, doing so is vitally important. It heavily influences students’ experiences. In addition, being able to demonstrate your understanding of the school’s culture in your application efforts can help convince a school that you are a good fit with that culture—something of increasing concern to most leading schools.
Reputation. Is the school considered one of the best schools in the world, especially in your particular specialization? Is it particularly well known and respected where you would most like to work? As Chapter 4 discusses in detail, the various school rankings should not be considered definitive. Pay at least as much attention to the opinions of those in charge of hiring at companies of the type you wish to work for.
Size. Smaller schools often engender a friendly, family atmosphere. Large schools, on the other hand, are able to provide large numbers of both elective course options and skilled professors. (Smaller schools tend to be better rated by students; larger schools by employers.)
Location. The appropriate location for you is likely to depend on a host of factors, including, of course, personal preference. If you prefer a small town to a global city, you will lean toward Hanover, New Hampshire, rather than New York City; Cambridge rather than London. If you intend to work part-time during the latter part of your program, however, you might prefer large cities to small, given the greater employment opportunities.
The school’s location will also have a major impact on your spouse’s (or significant other’s) employment options. A corporate strategy consultant will have a relatively easy time finding appropriate employment in a major city but not in a small town. Similarly, your spouse’s educational options are likely to be greatest in a city with numerous major universities rather than in a one-university town. By the same token, your children might have a tougher time socially and educationally in a large city than in a small town, or vice versa.
The location of a school helps determine its social environment. Schools in large cities tend not to foster the degree of social bonding among classmates that schools located in small towns do, largely due to the lack of other entertainment options in small towns.
The question of whether to go abroad is often a matter of whether you intend to work in the country where the school is located. Other compelling reasons to attend business school abroad include wanting to work for a target company based in the other country; wanting to improve a foreign language; wanting to experience another culture in order to be ready to work in international business; or wanting to attend a better quality school than is possible at home.
One additional locational factor to consider: How important is it to be close enough to your home to allow easy visits?
Quality of Life. Student lifestyles may vary a great deal, of course, depending on both the program and the student. A program in New York City may influence a student’s life less than one in the country. At a school like Duke, in a small city, most student socializing is done with other students, both because the students tend to get on well with one another and because Raleigh-Durham offers limited enticement to pull students away from the business school.
Note that some schools treat spouses and families much better than do other schools. Some allow spouses to sit in on courses as a routine matter, whereas others have never heard of the idea. Again, some but not all schools include families in the school’s social life and go to great lengths to help them find child care and jobs, whether in the business school (or university) or in the surrounding area.
Be sure that your favorite activities (including those typically organized as a business school society or club) are available, whether at the school itself or nearby.
Safety. Related to the location issue is the question of safety. Be sure that the school environment is, and feels, safe. In assessing safety, make sure you see the school and its environs (wherever students spend time), and do not assume that what appears safe at noon will also be safe at midnight. Discuss the matter with school officials, of course, but do not take their comments on faith. Be sure to discuss your concerns with students physically like you. (Your notion of a safe environment will not necessarily be the same as that held by a 250-pound world karate champion or a tiny, fragile arthritis sufferer.)
Facilities. Check to be sure the school has top-quality research facilities, including a traditional library and extensive online services. In particular, note whether the library and study rooms are comfortable for extended work efforts. Check, too, for facilities of unique importance to you, such as a simulated trading floor.
Housing. Housing can be a major concern, especially in your first year. Look at the school’s student housing (dormitory or apartment). Examine the price and availability of off-campus housing. Note also what transportation options you will have (and their safety implications).
Mission. Some schools view their job as training general managers. Other schools look to train functional specialists. All want to train people who intend to get to the top of their chosen fields. Related to this, some schools require that students specialize in a field of their choice, meaning that they must take at least a set number of courses in that field. Others permit a free choice of electives. These differences can have a major effect on your fit with a program and the students who have chosen to attend it.
Term Length. Long semesters lift the pressure of constant examinations and papers, but shorter terms make it possible to sample a wider variety of courses.
Program Length. A shorter program is generally more appropriate for those well advanced in their careers, especially those who do not wish to change fields. Longer programs are more appropriate for those with lesser business backgrounds or a desire to switch fields. Note that some schools offer the opportunity to complete their program more or less quickly. London Business School students, for example, can do so in fifteen, eighteen, or twenty-one months. Those at Tepper (Carnegie Mellon) can finish in sixteen rather than twenty-one months by taking courses in the summer after their first year rather than doing an internship.
Courses in Other Branches of the University. Those studying many different areas of business can benefit from taking courses in other parts of the university. Thus, someone intending an investment banking career in corporate finance or mergers and acquisitions might profit from courses in securities regulation offered by the law school. Many business schools severely limit the number of courses that may be taken for credit in other parts of the university. Booth (Chicago) is a notable exception, allowing students to take up to six courses in other university departments. Some European business schools, of course, are stand-alone schools unaffiliated with a university; thus, they offer no opportunity to take courses in other parts of a university.
Joint Degrees. The number and variety of joint-degree programs on offer at some schools is very impressive. For example, various schools offer the chance to do a master’s or doctoral degree in a related subject of interest, such as economics, engineering, international relations, law, medicine, urban planning, and so on. (This is likely to be possible only if the school is part of a university.) The leading American business schools have long offered this possibility, but it is rare in Europe apart from the British universities.
The most popular option in the United States remains the JD-MBA. Joint law and master’s degree programs used to require four years of study, thereby decreasing the amount of time that would be required to do each degree independently. Many leading programs, however, now offer three-year JD-MBA programs. The MBA component of these programs is much reduced when compared to the coursework in a traditional two-year MBA program, which means they are likely to appeal more to would-be lawyers wishing to learn some business than to would-be business people wishing to learn some law. Most schools require you to apply to and be admitted by each program separately. (For an extensive discussion of joint degree programs, see my How to Get Into the Top Law Schools.)
The reputation of the “other” degree program may be more important than the reputation of the MBA program, depending on your future career path. For instance, if you are pursuing a JD-MBA and intend to work in a corporate law firm, the reputation of the law school will be paramount; if you intend to work for an investment bank, however, the reputation of the business school will weigh more heavily. Note that although many top business schools are ranked at approximately the same level as their affiliated law schools, there are some prominent exceptions. Yale’s MBA program is ranked lower than its powerhouse law program (the same is true for NYU), whereas Northwestern (Kellogg) and the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) have higher-ranked MBA programs.
Internationalization. It is not easy to gauge a program’s degree of internationalization. Consider the extent to which cases and courses focus on international management issues, whether the students and professors come from a variety of different countries, the ease with which one can do projects and exchanges abroad (see below), and the degree of emphasis placed upon language learning. Or, rather than assessing these input factors, you could look at the programs’ outputs—the percentage of graduates who take jobs abroad or jobs that include a large international component.
Exchange Programs. Those interested in an international dimension to their studies might benefit from a term at another top school, one that offers the opportunity to study in another language and (business) culture or pursue a specialized topic in greater depth. Consider the number and quality of exchanges on offer at a given school (and how many students actually participate), but also make sure your particular interests are catered to. Note that some schools, such as London Business School and Anderson (UCLA), have exchanges established with dozens of foreign programs, whereas Harvard and Cambridge have none.
Visiting Executives. Schools should bring CEOs and other senior executives to campus as executives in residence and guest speakers. The quality and location of the school will tend to determine the number and nature of such visitors.
Lifetime Learning. Some schools, led by Wharton and Haas (UC Berkeley), now offer graduates several days or more of free executive education at various points after graduation. Insofar as many graduates can expect to make major career changes, or need skill refurbishment, being able to retool free might prove of great value.
Preprogram. If you need help in algebra, calculus, statistics, computer usage, or languages, try to prepare yourself as best you can before the program begins. Note, however, that schools now offer preprograms that range from a few days’ social introductions to a month’s instruction in core (especially quantitative) subjects.
Core Courses. Some schools allow you to opt out of or substitute advanced courses for any core courses about which you are already knowledgeable. Two problems can result from this. One is that this is a detriment to less-well-prepared students, who have to do without the benefit of your contributions in these courses, and vice versa when you are the neophyte and others are the experts. Another is that the program will have less of a community feel. In fact, some schools do not permit waivers of introductory courses in order to keep a cohort or group together. Case method schools in particular feel that much of the teaching comes from students who are knowledgeable about the specific subject matter, so the school must keep those who are already expert in a subject in these classes to teach the novices. Whether this is a key issue for you will depend on your background. Undergraduate business majors with work experience in a management consulting firm, for example, may prefer programs that allow them to substitute advanced courses for the basic courses in the core program.
“Touchy-feely” Courses. Check that the program offers courses that capture the nonmathematical elements of management in as rigorous and productive a fashion as possible. Note that graduates ten years out of business school almost invariably describe courses in negotiation, communication, teamwork, leadership, interpersonal skills, and other soft skill areas as being of great and continuing importance to them.
Integration. In the past, most schools taught courses that were neatly divided into functional areas. Thus, a marketing course resolutely stuck to marketing topics without, for example, considering the impact of marketing decisions upon manufacturing operations. It is now generally recognized that such compartmentalization is not only artificial but also harmful to students who fail to integrate their knowledge of different functions. Although schools recognize the nature of the problem, not all of them have succeeded in developing truly integrated programs.
Electives. Make sure the school offers sufficient electives in your chosen field. Note, too, whether the course offerings reflect recent developments in the field. Be sure courses listed in the catalogue or on the website are given annually. Some schools list all the courses they have given at some point in recent years, or hope to give, rather than those that will indeed be offered. Be sure, too, that more than one professor provides them, so that your education will not be savaged by one professor choosing to take a sabbatical during your second year.
Note that some schools have definite specialties (and reputations to match). For example, Booth (Chicago), London, and Stern (NYU) are famous for finance; Carnegie Mellon, Cranfield, and Sloan (MIT) for supply-chain management. Some schools offer few electives; others offer many.
Nonbusiness Courses. Consider to what extent a school will allow you to take (for credit) courses offered in other departments of the university. Note that many American schools do not give credit for language courses—hardly appropriate for those that claim to be educating global managers. Among the honorable exceptions are Columbia and Texas.
Projects. Numerous courses will offer the chance to perform consulting projects for credit with local companies. The teams will include executives of the company as well as other students, thereby giving you a chance to put your learning into practice while making valuable contacts. These projects also serve as helpful integrating devices, both for showing how different functions relate and for demonstrating the value of soft skills. These projects tend to be more readily available in schools situated in a region that is home to many companies; schools in splendid rural isolation tend to find it difficult to place students in good consulting projects due to the lack of local firms.
Teaching Methods. Teachers can use lectures, the case method, computer games/simulations, or company projects in a course. Some courses lend themselves to one method rather than another. Thus, many schools use a variety of methods, depending on course focus and professorial preference. Many professors mix teaching methods, including lectures and cases or projects, for example, in a single course.
The case method, however, remains the single most important and most common teaching method in top business schools. It is arguably not at its best for introductory economics, statistics, and accounting classes. By the same token, a consensus view appears to be that at least some use of cases—especially in advanced marketing, strategy, organizational development, and finance classes—is highly desirable. The drawbacks of the method are minimized in those settings, whereas at least some use of it helps develop the ability to mine cases for the most relevant information, package it quickly, and respond to wide-ranging questions in a coherent and powerful manner.
Schools noted for their extensive (or exclusive) use of the case method include Harvard, Darden, Kenan-Flagler (North Carolina), Ivey (Western Ontario), ESADE (Barcelona), Instituto de Empresa (Madrid), and IESE (Barcelona).
In recent years, more and more business schools have been trying to increase the amount of experiential learning in their programs. In contrast to the passive learning of listening to a lecture, experiential learning—sometimes called action learning—is hands-on, putting a student in direct contact with issues. Thus, a consulting project that has a group of students wrestle with a major problem that a real firm currently faces is a good example of experiential learning. Proponents believe that such projects help students understand organizational realities, including the practical limits to the theoretical approaches they learn in class. It thereby improves students’ execution and implementation skills. A good example is Ross’s (Michigan) MAP (Multidisciplinary Action Projects) program. Students devote seven weeks to an intensive project, during which they have no other course responsibilities, for a firm that could be located anywhere in the world.
Teaching Quality. Even apart from the question of what would be the best method for teaching a given subject, quality is remarkably uneven and hard to assess (especially from a distance). It varies mightily from school to school and professor to professor, yet few students take enough courses at multiple business schools to be able to render a judgment about the relative merits of the schools’ teaching. As a result, the best way to gauge a school’s teaching is by examining the ways in which it promotes good teaching. Kellogg, for example, which is noted for good teaching, has a number of procedures in place to facilitate good teaching: “Professors are held to high standards in the classroom. Each new faculty member attends an orientation, is assigned a mentor, and is invited to a session on teaching techniques especially designed for Kellogg. New faculty do not teach in their first quarter, so that they may observe more senior colleagues and become familiar with the Kellogg environment. Every class is evaluated by students, and the evaluations are posted publicly. Tenure and promotion decisions are partially based on teaching quality.” Note that student course evaluations, which are produced at perhaps half of the top schools, offer a chance to judge the teaching in departments of greatest interest to you (even if such guides do not allow you to judge the school’s overall teaching quality). Such guides are typically available only if you visit the campus or have a friend in the student body send you one; few schools are willing to send them out to applicants.
Workload. All of the good schools require substantial work, but there is still a large disparity between the load at the least and most demanding schools. This is partly a function of the degree of competition at the school rather than the actual demands of professors. To this extent, your workload is under your control; you do not have to work one-hundred-hour weeks simply because most people around you are doing so. Still, the more easygoing the academic atmosphere, the less hard you will need to work for a given rank-in-class or the possibility of impressing the most demanding of prospective employers. (Be careful in asking about this, by the way, because doing so may mark you as someone insufficiently determined. Rely in part on the various guidebooks for this information, and pay close attention at school information sessions when someone else is silly enough to inquire about it. When visiting a school, ask students how hard most people work, but do not take their replies at face value because students love to complain about how hard they need to work.) Note that case method schools tend to involve heavy workloads, although students also tend to enjoy their work.
Mathematical Sophistication. Some schools require substantial mathematical sophistication of incoming students, whereas others require little more than a passing familiarity with differentiation and regression. Be aware of the level of quantitative knowledge required—for the school generally and your proposed course of study particularly—and assess your own skills carefully. Do not, for instance, blithely assume that you will easily recall math you have not studied for a decade.
There are obvious advantages to attending a school that uses advanced math in any course that can be taught better and faster with it. For the mathematically desperate, however—the so-called poets—these advantages will not be readily available.
Class Size. Smaller classes offer students the benefit of substantial interaction with, and attention from, the professor as well as a chance to participate relatively frequently. On the other hand, with more students you find a greater likelihood of students with relevant current experience commenting on matters. Small classes offer no chance to be anonymous and to hide, whereas larger classes—especially in courses using the case method—force students to compete for airtime. On balance, however, most students prefer small to medium-sized classes.
In addition, it is valuable to have available seminars in your field, not just for the in-class attention you can get from professors but also for the opportunity to get to know professors in your field out of class.
Professors. The ideal professors would combine three related features. They would be dedicated to teaching, and would always be available in their offices for conversation and assistance. They would also be world-famous consultants who spend a great deal of time with companies spread across the world, thereby increasing their knowledge and making contacts that might be useful when it comes time to help you find a job. Ideal professors are, moreover, people who devote substantial energy to research and publishing, to increase their fame and that of the school.
Although it is impossible to square the circle and have professors both be readily available and be international consultants and prolific authors, a school can foster an open-door policy that encourages professors to be on campus and readily available to students for at least some portion of each week. Students routinely prefer teachers who teach well over those who do high-quality research at the expense of quality teaching. At a minimum it is possible to say that teachers who only teach in the executive program, whose courses are so oversubscribed that you will be unable to enroll in their classes, or who are on sabbatical while you are attending the school, are likely to have little impact on your learning. The greatest danger exists for someone who chooses a school because one or two famous professors are there. The student may be unable to get a class with either of them, or may change his intended field of concentration and thus choose other professors for study after all.
It is important that a school have full-time professors in your field, not just adjunct professors or lecturers whose full-time occupation is actually practicing in the field. Such adjunct faculty can provide a wonderful view of current issues and practice, but they are less likely to remain at a school for an extended period (thereby risking leaving you high and dry) and may not be available on campus for out-of-class discussions.
Language of Instruction. A number of European programs offer the opportunity to do either a bilingual or an English-only program. Some start students in one language and require them to learn a second language during the program and to take business courses in that language during the second half of the program.
Student Body. The composition of the student body will have a major impact on your learning experience, your enjoyment of the program, and even your ability to get desirable jobs in the future. The large amount of teamwork embodied in most programs guarantees that much of your time will be spent discussing classroom issues with other students. The other students should be experienced enough that you can learn a great deal from them. On the other hand, they should not be so skilled, relative to your own level, that you will be unable to compete with them. One thing that they definitely should be is friendly and willing to share—both their time and their knowledge.
You risk being isolated and miserable if you do not fit in with the typical students at a school. Make sure you have spent some time with current students or those who have recently graduated to make sure you will feel comfortable at a school.
You can determine a lot about the nature of a school by looking at the makeup of its student body. The University of Texas, for example, has a strong technology management program and thus has many engineers and others with technology backgrounds in its student body. However, nearly one-third of its student body have liberal arts degrees. This is in contrast to Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School, at which only approximately 15–20 percent of the student body comes from a liberal arts background. If you have a liberal arts background, Texas might be a better bet if you are worried about being able to handle the curriculum successfully. Schools want students who will fit in, and you should probably choose schools on that basis as well.
Other aspects of the student body that might be of keen interest are the types of jobs people have held before business school, the age range, the percentage of women students, the percentage of minority students, and the percentage of international students. In general, the more diverse the student body, the more you will be able to learn.
It is, of course, one thing to have a number of students who are like you in some aspect you regard as critical. It is another to see how such people are treated. If you are foreign, for example, you should check to see whether foreigners are well integrated into campus life rather than being a distinct subgroup that mixes little with others.
Competition. Although most students would prefer an atmosphere that emphasizes cooperation more than competition, that is not true for everyone. Some people are inspired to work harder and perform better in a competitive environment. In assessing schools, note that six factors tend to determine the degree of competitiveness among students. Large schools, and those that have a high percentage of case method courses, are prone to a high degree of competition. On the other hand, the more work that is done in teams (and graded on a team basis), the less competitive the atmosphere is likely to be. If students’ grades and class rank are displayed to the class and to potential employers, the atmosphere is likely to be more competitive. The use of a mandated grading curve inspires competition, since an improvement in one student’s grade means another’s must suffer. Last, the number of students who are flunked out of the school has a large impact. Many, but by no means all, schools try to retain every student they enroll, thereby easing student fears.
Student-Faculty Relations. The student-faculty ratio, at the extremes, can have an influence on the relations between the two groups. Thus, at a school with a 20:1 ratio, getting to know professors may be more difficult than at one with a 7:1 ratio. But this simple ratio is likely to conceal as much as it reveals. The relative numbers of students and professors tend to have less impact on relations between the two groups than do other factors. Most important is the attitude professors have toward students. Some schools have a traditional closeness between students and faculty; faculty routinely invite students for coffee or drinks, join them for lunches, and so on. At other schools, professors do little more than hold periodic office hours. One determinant of the tradition is the school’s geographic situation. Schools that are isolated tend to have closer faculty-student relations than those in the midst of major cities. Another determining factor is the size of the business school. Smaller schools tend to have closer relations than large schools.
Jobs. The more highly employers regard a school’s graduates, the more job offers will flow. Specific offers depend on more, however, than just a school’s general reputation. Some schools are much more successful placing graduates in one field rather than another. Consider Columbia and INSEAD, for instance. In one recent year, Columbia placed 56 percent of its graduates in finance and 22 percent in consulting, whereas INSEAD placed 24 percent of its graduates in finance and 38 percent in consulting.
Check whether people get jobs that you would like to have. In addition, check what credentials they had. In general, distinguish between the job prospects of those at the top of the class and those at the middle and the bottom. The top graduates of the elite schools can be expected to get highly desirable jobs. The differences among schools become more marked as you work your way down their class rankings. Those at the bottom of the class at Stanford or Harvard, for instance, tend to do quite well, getting jobs at well-known firms. At less highly regarded schools, this is by no means necessarily the case.
To assess whether a school’s degree “travels” to whatever area is of interest to you, consider both where recruiters come from and where graduates end up working. Similarly, to assess the school’s overall success in placing graduates, consider not just which jobs graduates take but also the nature and number of recruiters pursuing graduates (and summer hires). Precise calculations, such as the number of recruiters per student, should not be taken as definitive, just suggestive of the school’s success.
Career Services. A good career services department will provide in-depth assistance to you at each stage of the career assessment and job search process. The stages include assessing your skills and interests; determining precisely which field, then which type of employer, you should consider pursuing; mastering résumé and cover-letter writing, interviewing, and “call-back” interviewing processes (including those specific to your chosen field, such as investment banking); sorting through job offers and negotiating the best deal; and learning how to succeed in the first months (or years) on the job.
Good departments offer presentations—and extensive one-on-one assistance—regarding each step of the process. They also offer “brown bag” lunches, for instance, where you can hear from graduates about work in large consulting firms versus small firms, job opportunities in a given field or city, and so on. They should intervene early to help those who intend to make dramatic career changes. They should have a database of alumni that can be easily searched by location, graduating class, function or specialty, nature of employer, and so on. (Alumni, as discussed on page 71, are potentially highly valuable in your career assessment and search as well as your career success later on.) These services should be available to alums, too, because you may need them more when you are out of business school than when you are in.
To assess a career services department, compare the programs it offers for each of the aspects mentioned above. Note what is available only on a group basis and what is available one-on-one with career service professionals. Good departments will have specialists devoted to each major employment sector, such as strategy consulting, investment banking, technology management, and so on. The department’s assistance should not be limited just to the traditional employers of MBAs, however, or to the most popular or closest cities. Thus, a truly international school will have international career services officers. Discuss both the effectiveness of the various programs and the availability and professionalism of the staff with a variety of students. Although the number of professionals working in a career services department is no more than a very rough approximation for the value of the service, it can still be helpful to know how many there are at a given school (adjusted for the number of students).
Alumni. Alumni can be useful in providing pointers to jobs, or indeed to jobs themselves. They can also mentor students while the latter are still in school, offering advice and contacts that can help establish them in their careers. In addition, alumni affect the ranking of the school by virtue of their comments about it, their degree of career success, and the amount of money they raise for the school. It is easy for you to determine the number of alums—the bigger and older the school, the more alums it has. To determine their dedication to the school, look at the amount of money they raise, the percentage of alums who donate, their willingness to come back to the school to sit on panels offering advice to current students, and so on. Also consider the extent of alumni club activity in the city or region of greatest long-term interest to you.
Local Connections. Schools tend to do very well in placing their graduates in nearby firms. If you are sure of where you want to live and work, consider the extent to which a local school’s connections may balance the appeal of a slightly more prestigious but distant rival. For example, the University of Southern California (located in Los Angeles) has a network of graduates in Southern California not easily matched by even the most prestigious of its rivals.
THE CAREER SERVICES DIRECTORS DISCUSS HOW TO EVALUATE A CAREERS SERVICE
Look at four things. (1) Understand the strength of the on-campus recruiting program and how it fits with the things you want to do. If it’s not a good fit, consider what other resources are available to help you meet your goals. (2) Look at the career management program and determine what is available to you—and how individualized it will be. (3) Understand also the background of the people in the department. It’s best if there’s a mixture of business and counseling experience. (4) You’ll also want to learn what employers think of the operation; this shows how the school manages relations with employers, which is an important element of the career management process. GLENN SYKES, BOOTH (CHICAGO)
A growing number of people in career management come from the outside—from positions of real business experience rather than human resources experience. The veteran brand manager is better able to give students a real sense of what a brand management position entails than an H.R. person can. Similarly, the ex-brand manager is better able to speak the language and understands the inner workings of the specific functions inside the hiring companies, and can better match their needs as a result. PETER J. DEGNAN, WHARTON
There are a couple of broad areas you should look at. First is the resources they put at your fingertips: online services, the library, the consultants, the alumni—and in particular how you are permitted to access alumni. Second is to try to understand the career preparation program they have. There are two broad areas that distinguish schools. One is the career assessment side. You want to find a school that will really help you dig into what you’re passionate about and what you have the skills for. If you’re changing your career, which 80 percent of full-time MBA students are doing, you want an assessment part that will really help you understand the variety of options you have and how you might best fit in terms of those options. The second side is career preparation. Consider whether it is required and whether it is part of the curriculum. How in-depth is it? Is it done by professional staff members, by alumni, by students, or by a combination? A third area, which is somewhat less important, is a broad look at the companies associated with the school. You want to look beyond the companies that come there to recruit because that no longer reflects how and where students get jobs. A better list would be that of companies that hired (or interviewed) students last year. EVERETTE FORTNER, DARDEN
Most schools have designed their career center to match the needs and expectations of the students (and recruiters) who have, historically, come to that school. One way to gauge this is to look at the kinds of jobs students get at a given school and ask whether those are the kinds of companies and jobs that interest you. If so, then you need to understand the process by which students go about getting these jobs. Given whatever that process is, will you be comfortable with that and will you be able to take advantage of both that process and the resources available to achieve your goals? ANDY CHAN, STANFORD
A good careers office will have people knowledgeable about different job functions and industries. In addition, it is essential that counselors be readily available on an individual basis. ROXANNE HORI, KELLOGG
Look for a mix of professional backgrounds among the personnel, including both psychology and counseling on the one hand, and corporate and professional on the other. Look, also, for an in-depth knowledge of a range of different professions and industries. Make sure that you’ll be given access to the companies that matter to you. REGINA RESNICK, COLUMBIA
We’ve instituted a number of new approaches in recent years. We now have a structured career development program for students. This is a two-year curriculum that begins even before classes with an assessment process and continues throughout the academic year with workshops and informational panels about various industries and functions, networking techniques, résumé review, informational and mock interviewing, and so on. We’ve also balanced our staff. Our team includes both career counselors, who have years of MBA coaching experience, as well as people from industry, who understand the corporate perspective and have had experience in specific industries of interest to students. Finally, we provide lifelong career-service support through our Career Center for Working Professionals. PAMELA MITTMAN, STERN (NYU)
At Stanford, about one-third of the students actually get their jobs through traditional, on-campus recruiting. (More will get offers through on-campus recruiting, but only about one-third accept one.) That may sound like a low number, given that at some schools the number will range from 50 to 70 percent. But the reason is that the jobs Stanford students have decided are of interest are at the sort of companies that do not typically come to campus. So we’ve designed our career center to get to know each student and provide each one with specific resources to help them network with both alumni and recruiters on their own time and be able to go out and market themselves effectively. We have over one hundred workshops during the year designed to help them get those jobs. And ultimately they go out and get very unique jobs. At some other top-tier business schools, on the other hand, 60 or 70 percent of the students get jobs in consulting or investment banking, so the way that office has set up their career center matches the way those students get their jobs (i.e., via on-campus recruiting). ANDY CHAN, STANFORD
We spend more time now than we used to on the independent search process. The mass-recruiting process—hiring students on-campus in November for jobs that begin in July—is fading, given the difficulty of forecasting needs that much in advance. CHRIS BRISTOW, LONDON
For how to factor the cost of business school into your decision-making, see Chapter 16, “Financing Your MBA.”