[申请总结] 七条建议给你选择学校（A）

My hard and fast rule for anyone, if at any point in thesearch process, you can visit the campus in-person, DO IT! There are things yousee, feel, and can’t get from online virtual tours, phone conversations,brochures, and emails. Many prospective students I work with, make it a point to visit a campus, eitherfor an event, lecture, or even a 1:1 visit. This way you can see the schoolfully functional, interact with people you wouldn’t normally have the chanceto, and see whether or not, you can see yourself there. The feeling that youget from visiting is priceless, and can be very telling. Remember, this is theschool you’re going to be at every day for the next year or two, so you want tomake sure that you’re not going to be unhappy or settling or surprised when youget there.

Many schools offer various planned programs, such as OpenHouses, Admitted Student Days, Candidate Days, for group visits. Schools offerinformational interviews, which can be done not only via phone or skype thesedays, but can be done in-person. If you can’t find anything on the website,contact admissions about visiting and/or setting something up.  

Be proactive in your search, and ask for what you want(respectfully and politely). After all, you’re the customer. My one suggestion about visitingis, do not just show up to campus unannounced. We like the heads up so we canperhaps get you in touch with a current student for lunch, or sit in on aclass, and be able to get any specific materials or questions answered for youahead of time.

What you value now as a graduate student, may be differentthan what you valued as an undergraduate. For this reason, you may consider schools and locationsthat are vastly different than what you did as an undergrad. This process is similar to what you did for undergrad, but you have more experienceand insight into the process this time, so have no regrets!

All of these questions are important to ask yourself.Numerous times I have interviewed and talked with students about whatcharacteristics they’re looking for in a Graduate Business School, and thisincludes location, and they either have no response or a vague one, or respondwith something that is inaccurate.

Be honest with yourself about what you’d be happy with. Ifyou can, visit the campus, so you can also see the surrounding area andamenities. I think you will surprise yourself with how telling a visit tocampus is and being able to see the surrounding areas, where you'll potentiallycall home for the next few years.

Don’t go broke or put yourself in more debt than you’recomfortable with when making the commitment to a school and program. Considerthe realistic cost of attending. This includes tuition, fees, calculate anaverage or food, transportation, luxuryshopping budget, housing, includinginternet, phone, etc. Most schools have a calculated average cost of attendancethat includes these above items in addition to the known cost of tuition. Everycity has a range of housing options and thus prices for each budget.