Orientation

Lorraine Lucas is Business Engagement Manager – Careers, Alumni & External Relations at Bradford University School of Management. She supports MBA students in career planning before, during and after their studies. For MBA Channel she put together her five most important pieces of advice for MBA students.

“Some of them read from a prepared speech, some of them may have pat answers from what they anticipate are going to be the questions, some of them try to embellish their experience. What we’re looking for is the right fit for the individual, and the program”, says Joan White, Associated Dean of MBA Programs at the University of Alberta School of Business in Edmonton, Canada. So think twice if you have landed an interview at a business school and you think that means you are in. Experts say you have just reached another critical test.

It seems like a smart idea to get an employer to pay for your MBA tuition but there are a few responsibilities to keep in mind. Are you willing to stay with the employer for the number of years he might demand from you? Have you got the stamina to finish the MBA course and put in enough work to receive marks that will be considered good enough by your employer? And what happens with the tax?

It might not come as a surprise that each business school has its own strength. A school with an excellent marketing program might be much weaker in accounting and vice versa. The top schools fare pretty well overall but going down the list of excellence shows some astounding highlights.

The 2010 European Business School ranking by the Financial Times looks like the one from last year, at least in regard to the leading five institutions. They are France’s HEC, Great Britain’s London Business School, France’s Insead, Switzerland’s IMD and Spain’s IE Business School, in that order. Further down the list, though, are some surprises.

“I was wait-listed at Darden and now I have an interview at Harvard. Wow! It was a lot of work but this book was my sole guide in transforming my essays. I would never try to apply for an MBA program without this book,” writes one Darian Diggler from Tulsa on amazon.com’s review page about Avi Gordon’s book “MBA Admissions Strategy.”

Not even ten years ago the Executive MBA (EMBA) world was quite different from today. Multi-school, multi-campus programs were rare, their development even endangered when - after the terrorist attacks of September 11 - travelling on international routes became less desirable. Despite those poor beginnings the EMBA programs have grown strongly ever since. The Financial Times reports that between 2001 and 2010 the number of courses in its league table has doubled, from 50 in the original classification to 100 in 2010.

Stanford is a synonym for the world’s most selective business school. As “Fortune” reports, last year, Stanford received more than 19 applications for every one of its 390 seats for this fall’s incoming class. All told, only 6.5 percent of the 7,536 applicants for the Class of 2011 were accepted.

American Business Schools rule the roost in this year’s ranking of full-time MBA programmes published by the “Economist”. The clear winners have been North American schools. It is not just that they occupy seven of the top ten places, including the first four slots. It can be found further down the table, where middle-ranking American schools have leapfrogged their European counterparts.

The “Financial Times” asks why French business schools rule the FT’s “Masters in Management” Ranking. After all, the current list is heavily dominated by the French Grandes Ecoles. 17 of the listed top 65 programmes are of French origin, and five rank in the top ten.

According to the latest ranking of full-time programmes by the British business magazine “Economist” MBA graduates have seen their salaries tumble since the recession. Graduates of European business schools are hit particularly hard.

The latest MBA ranking from the Intelligence Unit of the British magazine “Economist” contains a serious error, which has resulted in an incorrect ranking for Melbourne Business School. According to the “Economist”, MBS sits at number 46 internationally. It should be positioned considerably higher, finds the school itself. MBS had a rank of 26 in 2008 and 17 in 2009 in the Economist’s list.

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) - the MBA admissions exam - is about to undergo its biggest makeover in more than a decade, reports BusinessWeek. Starting in 2012, aspiring business school applicants will take the so-called Next Generation GMAT, which will include a new section on integrated reasoning, in which test takers will analyze data from multiple sources in order to draw conclusions.

With fewer jobs to fill and employers reluctant to boost travel budgets for on-campus recruiting, business schools are getting creative about helping students land jobs.

In today’s business world, you need the right combination of street smarts and book knowledge to survive and thrive. Here are three reasons why an MBA is your best bet to achieve this while working.

Now that the most of the second deadline are behind us, many prospective students are wondering whether they should apply in the 3rd round or wait for the first round and apply early next year. Here are some general guidelines to help you approach this decision.