Alumni/Current Students Questionnaire

Here is a list of questions you can ask current students and alumni when you call them or talk to them during your school visit:

1. Why did you choose this school?
2. What do you like the most about it?
3. The biggest strength of the school?
4. The biggest weakness?
5. What other areas would you say the school needs to improve?
6. How are the placements for international students? (if applicable)
7. Talk about housing costs and get more related information.
8. How many students have partners? What is their experience like? (if applicable)
9. What other schools did you consider?
10. What are you majoring in? What are your post MBA goals?
11. Talk about your post MBA goals and ask if this school fits with the goals?
12. Do you any other students who have similar post MBA goals?
13. What is the culture of the school like? Social scene, competitiveness, academic rigor, etc.
14. Favorite professor? Class?
15. What did you wish you knew when you were applying?
16. Any last words of wisdom for me?

Note: This is just a sample of the many questions that you can ask and if you feel I left out something important please let us know and I will update the list.

Is ‘Fit’ Really Important?

School’s cultural fit is very important for every MBA student. Think about getting stuck with students you don’t fit in well with. You are a competitive person and all your colleagues don’t care about competition at all. You like to go out but everyone thinks that they should study on a weeknight. Smaller differences like this can really break your MBA experience. Your colleagues are your future network, and if you don’t get along well with them, it won’t be of much help. Now think of the exactly opposite situation where you get along with everyone and share similar interests. You get the point?

What Can You Expect To Get From An MBA?

It is very important for you to know what to expect from your MBA. It can literally make or break your experience. Here are the possible scenarios:

If you know what you want an MBA will help you get there. Let us take an example. You know you want to start a business, so get involved in the entrepreneurship club, network with local entrepreneurs, find resources to make your business plan and if things go well even launch your business. You can apply the same things to finance, consulting, or any other profession.

Now if you did not know what you wanted an MBA will only mean a lot of debt, lost income, and a waste of time. Let us take an example. You show up at your business school because you just hated your hold job so much and thought you will get 2 years to decide what you want. You attend club meetings of the finance and consulting club. You really liked the welcome event of the consulting club, and felt consulting could be the place to go. You start applying for jobs and realize that you don’t fit in well with the job culture and all the traveling. You decide you should give finance a try. You talk to recruiters and they ask you why you were not at the networking event in the first week of school. Now you cannot tell them you have not decided what you really want because companies want students who know what they want. So in the end you are in no man’s land.

Your MBA will never be a total waste, but if you knew your goals, you will get so much more from it.

Location vs Ranking of a School: What Matters More?

So you got in two schools - one that is ranked higher than the other, but the other one is in a bigger city. What to do now?!?! In my opinion, always and ALWAYS go with the location school unless you made it to the top 5-7 schools.

Lets say you want to work in internet/technology sector after graduation. And you made it to Duke and UT Austin. Duke is a higher ranked school than Austin, much higher. But if I were you, I would choose Austin. Here is why:

1. Ranking is just a number, it only goes so far. What matters is the number of companies willing to hire you. Austin is a tech hub now, and is growing rapidly. You will have a lot of local companies that will be looking for talent. They wont be amazon and microsoft, but will be great companies.

2. These companies will have a much better relationship with UT Austin that Duke. Many employees might just be alumni - BIG PLUS.

3. Many companies are willing to hire interns, but they want local interns so you can work for them during school too. I lost an internship because of this. This awesome company in Austin wanted to hire me but since I was not a local, they didn't. It was a horrible feeling.

4. Your networking during school will be industry relevant and actually helpful. I went to so many networking sessions at UNC, most of them useless for me. If I wanted to work in Finance or consulting, it would have been different.

Hope this helps. I welcome questions and comments.