If ur looking at rankings & buying all the hearsay, ur doing it completely wrong. Choosing a good school is more an art than it is a spraying and praying tactic. They say fit is everything, but that's painting only half the picture. With options aplenty, one is in a fix when it comes to picking the diamond in the haystack. Here's making it simpler-

• Analyze the curriculum very closely, but look for industry & recruitment stats too. Lets assume for an instance that you are looking to pursue a role in Marketing post the MBA. You obviously going to look for a school that is strongly associated with Marketing. While Kellogg stands out as the premiere institution in this regard taking top honors in the rankings, the fact is that Haas places more of its students in a Marketing role (>20% of students ) than does any other top 10 school.  One needs to be cognizant of these intricacies when forming a decisive consideration set. So although stats are important, a considerable fact finding needs to be done on your part. Geography can be immensely important too in taking a pick.

• Having enough room to play, in terms of depth in various electives is a real value-add. For example, a strong real estate  or an energy program to complement the finance & marketing electives could go a long way. Sometimes, a course outside of the business arena can also do wonders (more on this later).

• Strength of university- not necessarily ranking only. It pays to be in a uni that emphasizes cross- campus immersion. Every C-level person I interact with greatly lays importance on this aspect. “The days a CEO being a Finance or a Marketing CEO are over. One has to be able to understand the granular aspects of all functions to operate in this day and age” says Gary Loveman- analytics mastermind & maverick CEO of Caesar Entertainment. This opinion was echoed by a recent talk hosted by the ex-CFO of Vail Resorts & current Executive-in-Residence at the Leeds School of Business. So stretch yourself, going the extra mile now wil pay rich dividends later. But also make sure the university offers courses outside of the B-school.

Law and Engineering courses are the most sought after, outside of the MBA. Not only does it help persuade employers about a future in this (technology?) industry, it helps understand the language and part of the tactical gameplay at work. Law especially helps in understanding the contractual side of things which can be critical in the business world.  This also pushes you to be self-reliant.

• School & community culture- The importance of this cannot be stated enough. A close knit, community feel that uplifts the MBA experience immensely. Not only does this help in flow of information on jobs (in the future), events and collaboration on work non- curriculum related, but it creates a healthy vibe among the cohort. John Byrne talks about such a cogent healthy interaction between students at Kellogg and how its brought about by the dean. This is also appreciated by recruiters and has a great spillover effect. 

While class differences are quite prevalent, the need of the hour is to thrive in a place that offers the best overall collaborative environment.

Community can also be an amazing asset while in school. Makes for a great learning experience- something I have spoken about here.

Complementing the MBA in every way possible is key. Adding value by tapping into additional resources is extremely relevant and adds dimension during the course. Below are some of the resources that have been extremely useful to me, most of which I religiously watch/ listen/ read.

5by5 Critical Path- For those of you business folks who are technically inclined, Horace Dediu, ex- Nokia consultant, parses Apple's Marketing, Operations & Product releases. The awesome insights will keep you gripped & coming back for more. 

E Corner- Stanford's E Corner is the one stop shop for everything entrepreneurial. With the breadth of startup gurus here, one gets to learn a ton on how the great companies of today started up and continued hacking through the problems they faced to reach the pinnacle of success.

HBR Blogs-  Your every day dose from experts on the new and improving. The multi-industry analysis

Haas Dean Speaker Series- The latest & greatest from the world's top CEOs. Great insight on how they view the world and shed light on what the future holds on the business front.

Lets talk about what the future of university education looks like and the broader issues that encompass this info-lution. If the recent explosion of MOOCs are anything to go by, online distributed education seems to be where its headed. Lets take a step back- What are MOOC’s in the first place? They are Massive Open Online Courses open to anyone wiling to devote a few hours each week- usual upwards of 3 hours. Coursera and Udacity are the famous platforms that host courses from top -notch public and private universities either for free or for a small fee. 

While there is a lot of debate over the efficacy of these online courses, this seems like a great new way to learn new a new subject. Some schools have gone as far as to offer a legitimate degree at the end of the course- Georgia Tech in particular was the first university to offer its Computer Science course for a fee of $6,600, compared to its on-campus fee price of $45,000. Many others have joined the band wagon.

So why are universities looking at this space so seriously. One reason is cost. “It costs 3 times as much to educate an undergrad than what they receive from net tuitions” says MIT President, Rafael Rief. MOOC’s are a great way to reach thousands, sometimes even a few hundred thousand people at once- a few courses have even attracted more people to that one course than the entire living alumni of a particular department. Thats a pretty massive stat right there.

One could enroll in Wharton’s first year online MBA courses for free. For a fee of $49, you could receive a certificate of approval, validating your completion of the course. Interestingly enough, professors in Wharton assign these MOOC sessions to their enrolled batch, and use the time in class to have deep discussions about the topics. This “flipping” tactic is a great move indeed adding a lot more dimension to the material and ample time for some in-class analysis. 

But does this do away with the most essential face-to-face interaction is the question of the hour. Having done a course of this style, I am convinced this isn’t the case. Course specific online communities and forums make for an amazing place to meet and problem solve with some like- minded people. These communities exist in a surprising number of cities spanning the globe and few groups hold regular meet-ups to discuss material and solving homework. You could even find online mentors and tutors to help. If anything, MOOC’s will create a deeper community around the courses offered and greatly increase collaboration. 

In addition to this, the structure of the courses are such that you could immerse in them at your leisure. Work all day and study all night, maybe, maybe not. What’s interesting is how recruiters will eventually look upon these courses if one is looking to get an internship/ job off these MOOC’s.

Though the future of MOOC’s seem extremely bright, only time will tell how effective these platforms will be in an all- round integrative learning experience. 

You might know of the long drawn tussle between Entrepreneurship and the MBA- its akin to a love- hate relationship, mostly hate. Traditionalists believe that the MBA was never structured to address entrepreneurship (how can one ever learn entrepreneurship?), while every MBA aspirant one comes across seems to regard this as his/ her primary area of focus. Added to this, most recruiters look for their ideal candidate to possess an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset.

While this post is not intended to dispel any myths about how schools fare in this regard, I wish to bring to your notice key aspects of what one should look for while considering your list of schools- even if your focus is not primarily entrepreneurship. In addition to this, how you can leverage specific resources while in this kind of an ecosystem.  

Here is a little comparative on the course offerings of B-schools situated in massively entrepreneurial regions. Please note that these may not be an exhaustive list of entrepreneurship related courses. 

In addition to specific courses centered around startups, there is a distinct advantage by enrolling in a program located in a highly entrepreneurial region. Chose the community- the proximity to great entrepreneurs is super critical. This aspect cannot be stated enough given the network related mentorship one could receive. Scoring Internships (more on this later) and projects in startups will be available and are great ways to test the entrepreneurial waters - learn by doing.

While startup ecosystems are symbiotic relationships highly reliant on investors and smart talent, one can expect to run into a lot of these kind on any given day. Investor side understanding- you could expect heavy- lifters in this space to hold lectures/ community events on these aspects and more (which is all the rage these days). Some schools also have startup incubators, competitions and venture funds comprising a cross- disciplinary cohort to add an additional entrepreneurial flavor to an already spicy program. Market assessment projects on innovations coming out of school is another must for understanding how technology commercialization is undertaken.

You get it! There is a ton to do while in school in an entrepreneurial community. Most importantly, its the exuberance of ideas and energy that one must seek while making the plunge- adds a great dimension to the program. So, Happy Hunting!