We're kicking off this series of posts on choosing an MBA by addressing what is, from our perspective, one of the least well understood aspects of choosing an MBA, namely going for "ranking" or general school "brand".

Our view is that both these characteristics are NOT the top considerations for a person choosing their next steps in executive education, however we realise that they can be used as a metric for how the whole experience works out for you, depending on what your ultimate goals are.

We are, it must be said, genuinely concerned when a GMAT Zone student or Admit Zone client tells us that they want to go to "an Ivy League school" or a "top 10 school". We fully support people's ambition (and of course, we here at the Zone studied at  schools of this type) to aim for excellent schools, our concern is that "excellence" per se really only matters  when it is relevant and suitable to your career plan. Read on, and see what else we think about with respect to the school's brand and ranking.

Let's get to the point, and ask ourselves a really fundamental question, "Why do I want to do an MBA?".

Pretty much all our decisions on choosing an MBA program will stem from answering this question fully. Our motivations are the key to understanding which MBA to choose for ourselves. They are key to understanding why now is the right time to pursue an MBA (we'll do another blog entry on "timing the MBA") And, if I may cast out a heretical suggestion, if indeed we should do an MBA in the first place. Nobody says you have to. There are an infinite number of paths you can take to change your career trajectory, the MBA-boosted path is merely one of them (something my education in Physics taught me with the concept of the Hamiltonian, but I digress...).

Brand

So,  Brand.What's the brand made up of?

First off, think of the school's brand as an indication of the underlying value proposition of the service, in this case the education you will receive.The education MUST be relevant to where you are deciding to focus. Not sure what you're going to do afterwards? We'll discuss that later below. For now, if you have a career plan in mind, you need to go somewhere that will add the vitamins you need.

If you feel that your career will be focused in a particular area, say finance, or entrepreneurship, the ranking of the school is highly unlikely to be significant in indicating the suitability for enabling this career path. One of our clients, in particular, wanted to get involved in entrepreneurship in Australia in a particular industry. He applied ONLY to an Australian school and will gain phenomenal benefits from being plugged into the business environment where his career plans ultimately lie. His personal background was impressive enough, in our opinion, to enable his entry into "Ivy League" schools; his personal goals were both ambitious enough to warrant entry to a top school, while also feasible enough to ensure that he'd make them happen. Yet, had he joined Harvard or INSEAD, he would not have made the right strategic moves for his career.

The brand of the school was way down HIS personal ranking of what makes the right school. And, in fact, his razor sharp focus on that school and country helped assure his place in this nonetheless highly competitive program.

Staying with the quality of the education you will receive, it is our firm belief that all schools offer essentially the same quality core courses, regardless  of where you study. The schools MUST provide the basic introduction to core commercial concepts such as strategy, marketing, and corporate finance, and indeed all tend to use standard materials and constructs, for example the 4 Cs of marketing, the Five Forces of strategy etc. Mnemonics that help people get their heads around a "business way of thinking" before moving onto more abstract, or specialised concepts. This will be fully half the course materials  at the end of the day, and whether you go to Harvard or Helsinki you'll be introduced to the same materials, and probably do much the same exercises.

Now, the schools begin to differ somewhat when individual professors who have specific strengths, backgrounds and research offer elective courses. Here, the brand or ranking of the school MAY indicate the range of specialised courses that you may wish to receive special insights on. However, as the rankings and brand are such broad generalisations of a school's ability to deliver a general management education, you are better off focusing on the faculty members than the school's ranking. You are better off applying to NYU Stern for Finance, than higher ranked Kellogg. They just have more relevant people.

So when does the brand actually matter? Answer? the Network, and Recruiters.

The Virtuous Network Cycle

Perception  = Reality, as one of our alumni likes to say (he was an account manager for a leading ad firm in Asia) he's now doing the Sloan Fellowship in LBS. Watch his video on our Testimonials page. Great guy.

Anyway, if you want to go where the good people go, you assume that the rankings of the school will indicate to people where the best school is, and they'll go there. Hence, the people most confident about their professional backgrounds will generally apply to the highest ranked school.

 Next, if you want to work at a company like McKinsey, or Google, you'll want to go to a school where they recruit. Where do they recruit? At the highly ranked schools. Where they feel they'll find the best candidates. Think of the perception = reality idea in terms of a successful shopping mall. While it's hot, all the shoppers go there as the hottest stores open there. The hottest stores open there as they expect everyone to come to the mall as it's the hottest in town. It's a delicate unstable balance, but generally lasts as there are ways and means of keeping your brand hot. But, remember, if your brand depends on being hot, rather than something more sustainable, once people stop thinking it, you stop being it.

No Logo

If you decide in fact to go to a school based on something other than the ranking of the school, chances are you'll be extremely happy with the school and very successful in your career as you're a self-driven person. If you aim for ranking, but don't get to where you want to be, you may feel short changed. An MBA at any cost is not one you want to do, you should be happy about where you study.

 An open vista

Well, what if you reallty don't know where you're going to end up after your MBA? But you're pretty sure you want an MBA nonetheless, as you need something to change / supercharge your career.

Maybe in that case your bets are best hedged by going to a top MBA school, as you may feel that at worst, being the runt of the litter in a top school means that you still have good opportunities to choose from, and the brand of the school will open doors for you where having an MBA from a smaller school might not make a difference to your career prospects.

I would say that this view has some merit, but I also caution against using the brand as a cure-all for your career ills. The idea of going to the top ranked schools without a career plan after the school is fine before you actually graduate, as you have time to evaluate and explore options and ideas. You should, if you are serious about boosting your career, spend the time in the MBA program, joining professional interest clubs and networking with classmates to learn about where you will focus your energies towards the end of your career plan. You must NOT, however, assume that the brand will carry you past graduation.

The Golden Opportunity

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. "

That's from Shakespeare (Julius Caesar, in fact). Meaning, when the opportunity is ripe, you have to take it. When you are close to graduation from a top business school, you are never hotter. Even if your background is not related to what you want to get into, there are recruiters there that will consider you, and give you a first shot at impressing them. All ya gotta do is prepare. And if you are at a top flight MBA school, then your worth is at the crest of a wave. You better make good then, if you are counting on the brand of the school. You are at the table, you gotta play your cards right. Compared to someone in a lower tier school, with similar qualifications, it appears that someone has slipped you an Ace. But if the game ends, and you haven't won the prize you want, then your value may drop tremendously, to whatever your intrinsic value proposition to an employer really is.

The Golden Opportunity is when you are about to be held out to the world after a year / two hidden away in a business school. Counting on the brand of the school to take you places can pay off if you work the opportunity right.

But if you don't have a strategy, you are rolling the dice for your future, and you may end up being no different to someone who chose a part time MBA program while staying in their job, except you are hundreds of thousands of dollars (or euros!) in debt.

Choose wisely! The brand is a nice to have, but you gotta have something that will sustain you beyond the brand itself, this includes a solid background pre-MBA that is part of what you bring to the table, personal drive and resilience, and above all the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

Good luck!