Rose Martinelli, Assoc. Dean for Admissions at Chicago GSB says, aDo your research on schools – know why a particular program fits your educational and personal needs. While there is only one MBA degree, no two MBA programs are exactly the same.”

So stop to think for a minute how important the first impressions of your application will be. In 40 lines or maybe 300 words you will have to show that you have done your homework about a school, and can convey a sense of thoughtfulness and motivation about why you and the school make such a great match.

There are plenty of places where you can begin your research, beginning with the school website, and dedicated MBA features such as this one. Take the time to look beyond the broader statements about the school and try to identify student testimonial that matches your own objectives. Look through the executive education section or the faculty biogs to get a better sense of the depth of teaching in an area of business interest. And carefully study the career statistics and recruiter data to make sure that not only are future employers actively recruiting at the school, but that they are recruiting for your areas of competence. Google as a recruiter might be present at one school, but perhaps only for positions in finance rather than marketing.

Meeting the schools face to face is highly recommended, both as a means of getting to know the schools through their admissions team and alumni, and the chance to discuss questions specific to your profile and ambitions. The World MBA Tour provides the perfect opportunity for this a check the dates of a Fair near you at www.topmba.com – with a wide range of international b-schools, and the chance to compare the experience and personality of top 20 schools with more personalized, smaller schools.

Donat waste this great chance to better understand a school by fixating on their average GMAT score. Such information is already available on line, so you can spend your face-to-face time discussing the match between the school and yourself, and obtain detailed advice for your application. This is also the chance to meet with school alumni, who were most likely facing a similar decision making process several years ago. Find out about their own academic and professional background, to then see how they navigated the admissions process, and how their MBA complemented the skill set they had already acquired.

I remain committed to the idea that an MBA is only worth doing if it brings you tangible added personal and professional value. As such, I think that Fairs and information sessions are also an opportunity to assess the quality of MBA programmes available to you. I strongly advocate international business schools that have one or more of the internationally recognized accreditations a AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA. Holding any one of these demonstrates that the school is committed to excellence. A handful of schools such as EM Lyon, Esade, HEC, Manchester, UC Dublin and Vlerick have earned a triple accreditation. They will have high academic standards, strong student selectivity, a well-resourced learning environment and are held accountable to show not only what is being taught, but also what graduates have learned.

In any case, come to the Tour prepared and you’ll make a great impression. You might want to mention the efforts that you made to meet with the school later in your application, showing how committed you have been to identifying the right school for you. The schools will invariably be impressed.

Doing your MBA research also means moving beyond the traditional business school rankings (the subject of a future entry on PaGaLGuY), where you tend to see the same group of school names shuffled and reshuffled. Itas a good idea to look at specializations that match your own career goals, or do an ROI calculation to see which MBA will offer you the best return on your time and money.

Where might you look if you wanted to focus on International Business, Operations, or Information Systems? After working at Infosys or TataConsulting for the past three years, perhaps you are looking at the MBA as an opportunity to pursue something more entrepreneurial a getting involved in a start-up, raising venture capital, or developing a new business unit at your current employer. Whilst HBS, MIT and Stanford can all boast a long list of remarkably successful entrepreneurs (letas face it, eBay and Google are not bad as references!) the schools that have consistently rated as the best for entrepreneurship are the likes of Babson College in the US, and EM Lyon in Europe which for the past decade and more have excelled in this field, reflected in their incubators, faculty expertise and corporate ties. In fact the two schools, both behind the annual World Entrepreneurship Forum, have just jointly launched a new Masters programme, the GEP, devoted to Global Entrepreneurship. They are not in the overall top 5, possibly not in the top 25, and thus do not have the same top 5 tuition fees or quite the same competitive levels of admissions. But they could be perfect for your next career step.

We know that applicant numbers for the top schools will continue to rise as the economy stalls. But as Pete Johnson, Admissions Director at UC Berkeley – Haas explains, it is not the sheer number of applicants that impacts your chances of success. aRegardless of the volume, the most important factor is always the quality of the application. The applications that stand out are those from applicants who have strong academic preparation, good work experience and letters of recommendation, and a clear understanding of what they will gain from their MBA experience.”

This should then help you to speak with greater clarity and conviction about the school to which you are applying.

Matt Symonds is the Founder and former co-Director of the QS World MBA
Tour. His best-selling book on applying to the world’s top business
schools, ‘Getting the MBA Admissions Edge’ was sponsored by Goldman
Sachs and McKinsey. Matt sold his business stake last year, and has recently begun a world
tour with his family. His first stop is India, where he is volunteering
at a small school in rural Karnataka.