Choose the Right Schools(I)-criterions also apply to B-school

What are you currently doing to find the right schools for you? Do you simply look at some kind of school rankings and decide that you are only going to apply to several second-tier schools and then randomly contact them? Or do you single out all the schools with the lowest application fees and think you will at least save some money?

These are not the ways to find your perfect schools!

In order to decide which schools you should apply to, you need to do two things right: (1) Have a clear objective in selecting your schools; and (2) Know how to research US schools and spend a lot of time doing it.

Objectives in Selecting Your Schools

As we have pointed out in previous steps, you need goals and objectives for almost everything you do for your applications. And they have to be clear and specific. The same is true with your school selections.

In selecting your future schools, your objectives can be many. Examples: (a) Your objective is to go to the best schools. (b) You will settle for whichever schools offer you a scholarship. (c) You plan on paying the tuition on your own so you want a school that is affordable. (d) You know that you will have to work part-time at a restaurant; therefore, big cities with a lot of Chinese restaurants are the right ones for you. (e) You want to go to Boston because the person with whom you are secretly in love is there.

You can have any kinds of objectives for choosing your schools and you can even have multiple objectives. For instance, you might want a scholarship and at the same time you might only prefer big cities. That's fine. But no matter what objectives you have, the objectives must be clear and specific and then you must find the schools that meet your specifications.

Do you have clear objectives in selecting your schools?