{"id":15060,"date":"2014-05-20T10:23:44","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T14:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=15060"},"modified":"2022-01-27T11:47:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T16:47:11","slug":"mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On our blog, in our publications and in public presentations, we have tried repeatedly to persuade business school candidates who are deciding which MBA programs to target to downplay rankings, which fluctuate frequently (and sometimes wildly), and instead focus on fit, which is enduring. Now, as the admissions season is about to begin, we recommend that you accelerate and broaden your evaluative process.<\/p>\n<p>One way to look beyond rankings is to speak with current MBA students. Even if you do not have direct access to students, reaching out to them in a targeted way can be quite easy, via club Web sites and even Facebook pages. You should not feel \u201cpushy\u201d when contacting a student this way, because most students take pride in their school and are open to speaking with candidates. They are a de facto part of the school\u2019s marketing arm. So, if you are interested in a certain program for its entrepreneurship program, for example, you can reach out to the individual (or individuals) leading the entrepreneurship club to learn more about the program (and the club!). Of course, you should be respectful of each individual\u2019s time and be well prepared for your conversation. If you are conscientious, you will be able to gain some great insight into the school\u2019s academic environment and then have time to find out more about the atmosphere on campus. Networking now should enable you to begin narrowing your search and more effectively focus your limited \u201cfree\u201d time over the next few months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. On our blog, in our publications and in public presentations, we have tried repeatedly to persuade business school candidates who are deciding which MBA programs to target to downplay rankings, which fluctuate frequently (and sometimes wildly), and instead focus &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[95],"class_list":["post-15060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mission-admission","tag-rankings-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. On our blog, in our publications and in public presentations, we have tried repeatedly to persuade business school candidates who are deciding which MBA programs to target to downplay rankings, which fluctuate frequently (and sometimes wildly), and instead focus &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-20T14:23:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-27T16:47:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. On our blog, in our publications and in public presentations, we have tried repeatedly to persuade business school candidates who are deciding which MBA programs to target to downplay rankings, which fluctuate frequently (and sometimes wildly), and instead focus &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2014-05-20T14:23:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-27T16:47:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jeremy Shinewald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Shinewald","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings","datePublished":"2014-05-20T14:23:44+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-27T16:47:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/"},"wordCount":278,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["rankings"],"articleSection":["Mission Admission"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/","name":"Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-05-20T14:23:44+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-27T16:47:11+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-look-at-b-schools-beyond-the-rankings\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mission Admission: Look at B-Schools Beyond the Rankings"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World&#039;s Leading MBA Admissions Consulting Firm","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"mbaMission","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"mbaMission"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f","name":"Jeremy Shinewald","description":"In addition to being Founder and President of mbaMission, Jeremy Shinewald is a Darden MBA, published author, and the recipient of Poets&amp;Quants\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Award in MBA Admissions Consulting. 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