Bye-Bye, Montauk!

Alex Chu, founder of MBA Apply and voice of reason on the BW Forum, recently completed his book, The MBA Field Guide: How to Get In & What to Expect at the World's Renowned Programs.

I just finished reading it and was very happy to see Alex encouraging applicants to focus on fit as opposed to rankings when deciding which schools to apply to.

Alex, however, does feel that some schools are better than others in terms of "prestige." Grrrr. Fortunately, he continues by making the argument that prestige only really matters for applicants interested in careers with Investment Banks and Management Consulting firms. According to Alex, these companies spend most of their recruiting dollars at the following schools:

Anderson
Chicago
Columbia
Darden
Fuqua
Haas
Harvard
Johnson
Kellogg
Ross
Sloan
Stanford
Stern
Tuck
Wharton
Yale

If you're addicted to rankings, you'll be sad to learn that Alex lists these schools alphabetically in his book. Better luck in the second edition.

So, where should you apply to school if you could care less about Investment Banking and Management Consulting? According to Alex, any one of the 500+ accredited business schools that best "fits" you!

Hard copies of the book are not yet available, but you can download a zip file (3 MB) that contains a pdf of the book. It costs $30 and comes in at over 500 pages. Whether you've just started thinking about going to business school or have already started working on essays for the up-coming admissions season, this is probably the most comprehensive book of its kind on the market today. (Bye-bye, Montauk!) To order a copy, click here.

EDIT: There is also a lot of information for international applicants in the book. There's a seperate section for Chinese applicants, Indian applicants, etc. Just thought I'd let you know.