Advisory for MBA aspirants: Seven factors to choose the right B-School

March 21, 2012 - PRLog -- It is that time of the year when you can see your hard work finally ripping some sweet fruits. But if you are allowed to have only one fruit, then you have to make the selection wisely. Here we are talking about the selection of the right B-School. The top B-schools like SPJIMR Mumbai, IMI New Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad, IIFT etc. have started issuing the admission offer letters.

Many of the MBA aspirants who have not been able to take admission till now are in a dilemma since they have shortlisted a few B-schools for themselves, amidst which it is hard for them to choose the right one. Lucky are them who have got the admission call from their dream MBA institute and are absolutely sure which one to choose.

So how would you take the decision which B-School to take the final admission in? It’s definitely a tough call as you need to tally several parameters before zeroing down to one particular MBA institute.

To take you out of this dilemma this article of MBAUniverse.com will discuss the important parameters for choosing the right B-school. Some of the most important criteria for selecting the right B-school are: Faculty, Facilities or Infrastructure, Fee, Placement, Industry linkage, location and last but not the least, the Brand name of the institute.

Faculty: Check whether the B-School has renowned full-time qualified faculty. Try to find out the ratio between the full time faculty members and the visiting faculty members. Check out the kind of guest lectures at the institute that you are thinking of joining. This will give your proper industrial exposure.

Infrastructure & facilities: Good management institutes should offer the basic infrastructure in place to aid in disseminating knowledge and ensuring that students are well-versed in modern day management tools. A well equipped computer centre, libraries, projectors, seminar rooms for guest lecturers etc. are a must. Once again, it is a good idea to verify all this rather than merely rely on the institute’s website or marketing brochure. Speak to alumni of the B-School or try to visit it yourself.
Fee: You must have decided a budget for your MBA. You can decide which B-School to opt for on the basis of the fee of the B-schools. You make the final decision after going through the placement data to see if your choice will have a fulfilling Return of Investment (ROI). But on a different note, fee should not be a make or break criterion for you if the ROI is good. There are several banks which will offer you loans that will take care of your MBA expenses.

Placement: Placement is the other side of the coin of the previous factor, which is the fee. After analyzing both the factors and deduce the ROI, you should take the final call. Go through the placement data shared by the B-School. Check the highest and the average salary, company profiles, sectors of recruitments etc. Do not just look into the numbers but the quality of placements too, such as umber, nature, reputation and variety of companies that come to campus for placements. This is because if you wish to specialize in a particular stream and work in that field (example: marketing or finance), then there should be a sufficient number of reputed companies in that field that recruit form campus.

Industry linkage: The industry linkage of the institute gives you the opportunity to get abreast with the industrial know how and gain practical knowledge.
Location: Location of the B-School is an important factor to be kept in mind while you select your B-School. It is very important that the B-School is located in an area which has a proximity to the industry, education hub and policy making bodies. For example, the metro cities are top choice for B-School due to the presence of industrial houses and presence of the varied sectors.

Brand name: B-School brand refers to the awareness about the B-School. You can judge this factor by asking people about the B-School and then check the response. The brand of a B-School is based on certain factors like alumni performance, the number of years the B-School is functioning, industry recognition, ranking, advertisement and promotion. Before you put the final stamp on a particular B-School, check the brand value of the institute.