Step 2: Research Your Target Schools

Researching your target schools is actually a two fold process: (1) acquiring knowledge about the school and (2) applying that knowledge to understand why the school is a great fit for you. The second part of the process is inherently personal, as what attracts you to a school is largely determined by your professional goals, values, personality and personal life circumstances. In fact, because top business schools share many similarities, it is really the unique qualities of a given school that resonate with you that make for compelling interview answers that affirm your strong fit and interest.

You may have accessed the resources listed below to do your initial research on your target schools. Think about the specific facts and details you gleaned from these different resources that you will want to incorporate into your preparation for your interviews.

• Business school guide books such as those offered by Kaplan, the Princeton Review, the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report and other publications.
• The school's brochure and website will provide extensive information about the MBA program. In addition, many top tier programs include student profiles on their website to give you a glimpse of student life in the program.
• ZoomInterviews has made available School Tear Sheets, one-page summaries of essential information for each top 10 MBA program. The Tear Sheet has facts and figures about the school that any well-informed candidate should be familiar with and be able to casually bring up during the interview.
• Admissions officers will share (and sell) their school's program through MBA forums and information sessions on-campus, as well as region-specific events across continents.
• Several major business media maintain sections of their website devoted to business school and the MBA admissions process. Well-known sites include BusinessWeek.com, the Economist Intelligence Unit (eiu.com), and US News & World Report (usnews.com).
• And of course, your research would not be complete without speaking with a school's current students and alumni. These conversations are invaluable to get an insider's view of the program and the overall MBA experience at each school.

In your research you will uncover a plethora of reasons for why you are attracted to certain programs. Keep track of these reasons in a Research Matrix which you will later use to formulate answers to several important questions: (1) how will the school's program help you achieve your goals?, (2) what contributions you will make to the school community, and (3) how will you enhance the b-school experience for your classmates?