Why do you want to go in for an MBA is a question that every prospective Business school student faces. Before taking the plunge, it would be worthwhile to sit back and consider some of the important aspects listed below.
The first thing to do would be to take a close look at your career goals from a long term perspective. Some may think of starting their own business, others may want to substantially improve their skills to quickly move up the ladder in a large corporate firm. The candidate should then decide if an MBA is essential or whether there are other avenues of career advancement.
An important reason for most applicants for MBA program would be improving their leadership skills. For those not interested in this aspect, an MBA would not be worth pursuing at all.
Then there are those who find that their career has become stagnant with no room to grow. They feel the need to acquire better skills for career advancement. Such candidates could go ahead with the process of applying to B-schools after carefully perusing the prospectus and choose the best one that suits their particular field of interest.
The first thing to do would be to take a close look at your career goals from a long term perspective. Some may think of starting their own business, others may want to substantially improve their skills to quickly move up the ladder in a large corporate firm. The candidate should then decide if an MBA is essential or whether there are other avenues of career advancement.
At this particular point it would be important to consider the resources offered by B-schools including mentors, labs and other facilities where you could test your ideas, network with colleagues and professors and even build a team that would be advantageous in future too while setting up businesses or making career moves.
Since each school varies in terms of not only the faculty but also composition of the class regarding the industrial and cultural background of the students and the alumni, enough time should be spent on gathering information from those associated with the school in various capacities, class profiles and placement reports to shortlist the most suitable institutions.
Finally, there is the question of affordability. MBA tuition fees usually gets pegged at very high levels. So, the return of investment (ROI) aspect has to be looked at carefully since if you plan to do a full time program, whether one year or two years, the calculations should factor in the salary loss and other such monetary considerations. The salary hike that you get on acquiring an MBA should adequately compensate such expenses.
At this stage, you may want to explore ways on how to finance your MBA program, there are avenues like student loans and scholarships that have to be planned and applications filled in as early as possible. Then you will be spared of the agony of having to run around at the last minute and ending up disappointed since closer to admission time, scholarships and other financing options would have dried up.
