Maybe you’ve heard about MBAs during your studies, are thinking about applying for a deferred enrollment, have friends or colleagues who have touted the transformative benefits of the courses, or are looking to transform or expand your career. Whatever’s the case, usually you’ll begin by looking at a ranking. If you’re in the US, you’ll probably first turn to U.S. News, while in Europe and Asia, you might be brought to The Financial Times. However, a ranking alone is a poor source for identifying ideal programs. Let’s look at the latest rankings from the top 3 global agencies, ordered based on the average standing of the school:

While a small number of schools consistently rank in the top 10, many experience large disparities among the various ranking services. For instance, Dartmouth Tuck is 2nd according to Bloomberg but 18th according to FT. Why are the differences so great? Rankings are far more art than science. The measures, methods and weights of all ranking components, even when changed marginally, lead to significant disparities in the outcomes of participating schools. Not only that, but the rankings experience large volatility year-to-year, with schools dropping or rising dozens of positions, which isn’t true-to-life as quality among MBAs does not change meaningfully on an annual basis.

What rankings are good for is to understand your universe of options and to glean the background data they provide on schools, such as salary information, alumni location, common job categories, etc. To accurately select an MBA, you need to look deeper into your possibilities. What’s the culture of this school: is it more team-based, as at Berkeley, or more competitive, as at Yale? Does the program orient itself towards consulting (ex: 41% of the INSEAD class) or Finance (ex: 34% of the Stanford class)? Does it have a large cohort (ex: 897 at Wharton) or a small one (ex: 104 at IMD)? There are many questions about the program, its students, its partners and post-MBA job opportunities that you’ll need to answer before you can arrive at a ‘ranking’ that works for your future.

If you’re targeting the most exclusive MBAs (HBS, Stanford GSB, INSEAD, LBS, etc.), you have to first understand who your competition will be. For the most part, they’ll be made up of an elite group of individuals from around the world, with outstanding academic performance and employment history. At times, 20 of these select applicants will be vying for just one seat at a prestigious university. Your goal is to make yourself stand out as much as possible from this crowd.

One part of the equation seems straightforward enough, and you’ll see it mentioned time and time again: the application components (GMAT/GRE, CV, essays, recommendation letters, and the interview). Of course, nothing is that simple, because it’s the information behind all of these parts that admissions teams are analyzing:

To make yourself stand out, you’ll need to discover how to best present and in what amounts every aspect of your history: personal, professional and academic. And, if you have any weaknesses, you’ll need to attack them head on to succeed.

Admissions Circle Experts can work to help you select the right MBA programs, prepare powerful applications, and deliver effective interviews, while supporting every other requirement of your particular MBA admissions process. The advantages are three-fold:

• We significantly increase your chances of entry to top MBA programs, which in turn magnifies your odds of receiving merit-based scholarships and fellowships

• We dramatically reduce the time you spend on the application process, thereby allowing you to more efficiently carry out all of the necessary steps (test prep, essay writing, etc.)

• We help you realize your potential—especially when beginning your MBA journey at an earlier period—; identify schools that better match your needs; and even develop pre-application strategies to modify your profile, making you more attractive to target MBAs

Naturally, every case is unique, so to better identify how admissions consulting can help you reach your goals, it’s best to start at the beginning: help us understand who you are and what you want to become.