At this time of year many MBA applicants have moved deep into decision-making mode about their school of choice. Perhaps there are a few offers you are contemplating (or maybe hoping to receive) and I wanted to reflect on what I believe should be a critical part of the MBA-buying process: attending a class visit.
The MBA is of course a financial investment, but is also an investment of a year (or more) of your life. Ultimately, as an MBA student, you should be incredibly excited about this opportunity and feel confident that there is a fit with your school of choice, and your personal and professional motivations for pursuing your MBA. The best way to do this is by ‘kicking the tires’ and investing a day at each of the schools you are considering. Work with admissions reps to set-up visits where you will get exposure to the campus, attend class and see if the style of learning is right for you, meet students/faculty/staff and assess if the culture of the school will provide the challenge, support, and community you will join for a lifetime! Ask yourself some of the following questions (and more): Can I envision being happy and challenged in this environment? Am I impressed by the caliber of current students? How open and accessible are the faculty? Will I learn best is this setting? How involved is the career management team? Do I think I would thrive in this campus environment?
At Ivey, we offer class visits monthly to allow prospective and current MBA applicants to jump into the Ivey experience for a day, and see what Ivey has to offer. We coordinate the day to ensure visitors sit in on a real Ivey class (not a mock event), have an opportunity to ask questions to a faculty panel, have lunch and Q&A with current students, tour campus, and meet career management and admissions. It is definitely a comprehensive day and showcases what makes the Ivey program so unique. We actually support this opportunity financially with a variety of different travel awards, so for most visitors, their investment is making the time to attend. Full details on this at: www.ivey.ca/mba/visit.
An MBA is one of the biggest investments you will make in your lifetime – spend as much time researching and checking out schools as you would for other big purchases like vehicles, homes, etc. After all, you will probably buy many vehicles and homes in your lifetime, but you only pursue an MBA once!