Essays are an incredibly important part of the application process, says Stacy Blackman, an MBA admissions consultant. Seemingly straightforward questions require a great deal of introspection. Make sure you budget time to draft and redraft, try new approaches and carefully edit so that each line packs the maximum punch
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The programme fee alone at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania—one of the world’s highest-profile business schools—is currently $107,922 over two years. And there is more than just the fee to consider. If you decide on a full-time programme in Europe you will typically be out of the workplace for at least a year. Opt for a school in North America and this could stretch to two years. Students at Wharton forgo an average basic salary of $76,193 a year while attending lectures. Making the correct choice of school and programme is thus on a par with selecting the right house, perhaps even spouse.

Schools in The Economist’s ranking of MBA programmes insist that they can help boost students’ career opportunities and open new areas of expertise and mobility. Indeed, surely the degree is worth pursuing only if it brings with it a sufficient level of professional advancement and personal development. But can an MBA still be considered a gateway to the top table? Do programmes really produce confident, self-aware graduates who can build exciting careers? What is more, if, as is often claimed, what is taught varies little between schools—if an MBA has become nothing more than a commodity—does it matter where you end up?

The answer is yes: it still matters. The market is tougher, the degree is under scrutiny, but for many professions, getting an MBA from the right school is a way of landing a better job and of accelerating a career.  Getting a degree from the wrong school, however, is not. Finding the right school is not just about looking at rankings, or choosing one considered as “prestigious�. The key to making the right choice is understanding why you want to take an MBA, and what you expect it to do for you. So let’s look at some of the key reasons for going to business school and what direction each might point you in:
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