School Selection

I would strongly encourage you to visit schools before you apply. However for some of you it may be impossible to visit. In these cases, try to contact students from your demographic at various schools. There are few things to keep in mind while selecting schools

1. Career goal - Are you planning to change your career post MBA (though you may not want to mention this in your application)
2. Career Services (long term help and support)
3. Class size
4. School strengths and weakness

At times prospective students forget to account for class size. If you plan to change your career and end up in a school with large class size, it is even more difficult to achieve your ultimate goal. This is simply because you will be competing with hundreds of other students applying for that same job. You really need to distinguish yourself at that point. You might also be competing with people from other backgrounds who already have a firm grounding in the area you plan to work in.

Class size is a very important factor. Try to get in touch with students who have made the exact same career change. Their perspectives will help you decide.

In most top 10 schools the career services do a great job of ensuring that most students are recruited by top firms before they graduate. However try to find out from alumni about the long term support. Did they ever use career services somewhere down the line in their career?

"Fit" is a very important factor. You want to spend the best two years of life at B-school and build long lasting friendships.