Key selection criteria

When choosing an MBA programme, it definitely pays to do some background research on who your fellow students are likely to be, writes Brutus Lo

It is often said that one of the key objectives in pursuing an MBA degree is networking. While that is true for some students, I believe people do not necessarily spend much time or attention on assessing the peer group they plan to get into. You should, though, always want to know the general profile of your likely fellow students such as the age range, years of working experience, industries they are from and the ethnic or national diversity. Whether taking a full or part-time MBA, local or overseas, you should pay attention to this. After all, you will be spending time, learning and growing together with these students for at least two years. Depending on your career objectives, the characteristics of the student body may also influence your decision whether or not to enrol.

How internationally diverse is the student body? If your career objective is to do more regional work, international diversity within the programme will give you exposure to business practices and people from various countries. If your interest is to focus on China, you might want to look for programmes with more mainland Chinese participants. In the HKUST-Kellogg EMBA programme, for example, more than half the students are from places other than Hong Kong or China. In the 50-plus student body,13 other countries are represented.

How much working experience on average do the students have? What is their average age? You can usually assume that full-time MBA students are younger and have less working experience than part-time or EMBA students. Some schools in the United States set no strict requirement regarding the years of working experience so you may well find MBA students who are fresh graduates or have only minimal non-academic experience. Do you want to be in an MBA class with students who have not even one day's experience in a real business environment? Or would you feel intimidated being surrounded by too many middle-aged students?

You certainly would not expect everyone taking the course to come from the same industry. In fact, top universities are quite meticulous in selecting people with diverse backgrounds, in terms of both work and personal interests. You should investigate the companies candidates come from, whether they are multinationals, regional or local companies, SMEs or entrepreneurs. Sometimes, even gender can be a factor for consideration. In some programmes, like the Sloan School of Management at MIT, the male to female student ratio is almost 3:1.

While you should be "choosy" about the "crowd" you would like to join, your own profile also needs to "fit" with that of your dream school. If your working experience or even GMAT scores do not match their entry requirements, there is often not much you can do to change their minds. Well, good luck and make sure you get in with the right crowd!

Acknowledgement Brutus Lo is the MD of Kaplan Educational Center (HK) Ltd, an affiliate of Kaplan Inc which has helped hundreds of Hong Kong students to further their studies all over the world over the last 12 years. He worked in Silicon Valley and earned his MBA from the Kellogg (Northwestern)-HKUST programme.

Taken from Career Times 2003/12/12