MBA Admissions Tip: Considering the Campus
There are many factors that go into deciding whether to apply to a specific school, one of which is the physical place where you’ll be spending 1-2 years. Whether speaking with current students or touring the campus for yourself, it’s helpful to approach these information-gathering experiences with as clear a sense of what matters to you as possible.
Factors to consider about a business school’s campus:
1. Facilities
Are state-of-the-art classrooms and impressive new architecture a priority for you? Would you prefer a school that is headquartered in a single building to one spread over a larger campus? What about use of technology in teaching? If any of these factors are of significant importance and could tip the balance between schools on your list of target programs, you’ll want to do this sort of research up front.
If you decide to visit your target schools’ campuses yourself, we’d recommend that you take pictures or write up your thoughts after the fact while your impression is still fresh in your mind.
2. Surroundings
In addition to the campus itself, you’ll want to allow yourself some time to ask about and explore the larger city, town or rural location. Where do students live, eat and socialize? What is the cost of living? How do they get from place to place (parking or public transit may be an issue)? Are you interested in an active night life, or a wholesome place to raise a family? While considerations of academics and post-graduation career prospects generally take priority, you will be spending two years of your life in business school, and these more subtle factors can often tip the balance in favor of a certain program when all other elements are more or less equal.
3. Atmosphere
Along with the campus and its location comes a certain culture or climate. Are students generally competitive or collaborative? Do students tend to socialize before or after class, or do they go their separate ways? How closely knit are learning teams, sections, clusters and cohorts, and what are the relationships among them? How strong are the bonds among classmates, and the ties between past and present students? This questions point to the often elusive issue of “fit.” The pervasive atmosphere that informs interactions among your peers will undoubtedly make a significant impact on your business school experience, so it’s important to get a sense of this by speaking with current students and/or visiting the school.
MBA Admissions Academy
Episode 1: How to choose target schools for application
MBA Applywire
Applying to deferred programs this year, would love to hear thoughts on my application.
675 GMAT Focus, 3.723 at Non Target Undergraduate, Finance Major. Decent extra curricular on-campus, for internship experience started college with internship at a small ABL shop, interned sophomore summer/junior school year at a large publicly traded mortgage company doing Risk, interned after junior year at a Big4 doing Risk Consulting for FSOs. Returning FT to same B4 in Deals practice.
Would love to hear thoughts. Thanks.
Orthopaedic surgeon with cross-border training/work exposure i.e. UK, HK & Pakistan
• Strong involvement in research, publications, and innovation-related work
• Interested in the intersection of clinical medicine, healthcare systems, digital health, and business
• Long-term goal is to move from being a clinician to a broader leadership role where I can help build, scale, or evaluate healthcare solutions
African female - after 7 years at an international engineering consultancy and 3 in public sector, looking to get into infrastructure finance through an infrastructure focused MBA and internship pipeline. Certified PPP practitioner but not ao much leadership experience. Hoping to join a big 4 infrastructure advisory or infrastructure fund post MBA.
Only applying to Wharton "Deferred" Program (Due to eligibility)
Demographic: Asian Male, 26
Academic Background: B.S. & M.S. in Nuclear Engineering @ Top school in S.Korea
GPA: B.S.(3.76/4.30), M.S.(3.93/4.30)
GMAT Focus: 675 (Q-96th, DI-95th, V-56th)
Pre-MBA Employer: Recieved FT Offer @ Bain (expected start: July 2026)
Post-MBA Goal:
- Short: Banking
- Long: Infrastructure PE
Internships: Internship @ BCG
Research Experience:
4 conferences and several papers under review about Nuclear Fuel Materials, Nuclear Plant Economics & EPC, Nuclear Reactor Core Design
Extracurricular Activities/Leadership:
- Led a consulting project for a nuclear energy company in S.Korea
- Honor Society, College of Engineering
- VP of the student council @ UG department
- Soccer/Baseball team(non-varsity)
Awards:
- 2 x Minister's Award (1st place in Nationwide competition in Energy Sector)
- 5~10 x Minor Awards mostly in Energy & Nuclear Engineering
Honors:
- U.S. Army Commendation Medal
- Presidential Science Scholarship(Awarded by the President of the Korea, one of 25 recipients nationwide) - Fully funded during UG
- Korea Defense Veteran's Association (KDVA) Scholarship
- Honor Society of the College of Engineering
Hi All,
Location: India YOE:2.8 yrs Industry: Software Role: Senior software developer
I have been working in a software Mnc and recently got fired. I had initially planned to apply for MBA programs for 2027 intake. But given the recent layoff I'm not sure what to do next. I didn't yet take the gmat. And confused if I should do a job hunt now or prepare for gmat, since I wanted to apply for round 1s by sep.
I definitely want to go for a good International MBA for 2027 intake.
What should I do next, follow are the choices I can think of-
1. Prepare for a good gmat score, finish it in next 2-3 months, I also have a small startup idea that I would like to in parallel experiment/try out, not sure how far it will succeed.
2. Prepare for gmat, complete in next 2-3 months then do job hunt(might or might not be able to get a job by the time I apply for round 1s)
Please suggest what is better for my mba applications.
MBA LiveWire
I submitted multiple updates but the main one was an EA score of 163. Also visited for a class visit and had 2 student letters of endorsement as well as 2 letters of recs from former colleagues. I’m so excited!!