Best Business Schools

There is a growing number of business schools sprouting up all over the world in a rather fast pace. All of them guarantee prospect students’ success and expertise in advance business management techniques through their MBA, Executive MBA and doctoral programs.

The primary reason why students attend business schools is to increase their salary potential and their marketability in the business world. An effective business degree leads them to a wide range of opportunities they can pursue, which include finance services, sales and marketing, human resources and operations management, accountancy and consultancy services.

But while it’s true that a business school degree advances your career and helps you earn more money, the key to a successful career in business still lies in finding the right business school. At a top business university, you'll learn the art and science behind business organisations and gain the skills you need to work in the corporate arena. It is a great place to find your niche.

Consider the following pointers in choosing the right business school.

•Cost of studying. If budget is an issue, scout for a school with reasonable rates and which wouldn’t compromise the quality of education offered. A business school degree can cost you a lot of bucks, therefore cost should be carefully considered before applying.

•Programs offered. Does the school/university offer the type of program you want? As stated earlier, there are different program varieties to choose from in business schools to date. A two-year MBA degree, for instance, can be crammed up in a single year dependant on the institution.

•Admission system. Some universities have a really strict system of student selection. Their competitive application process makes make it hard for average students to get in. To calculate your chances, match your credentials (GPA, test scores, etc.) to the school’s requirements.

•Program curriculum. Most school curriculums encourage specializing in a single aspect of business. The recent education review, nevertheless, proposes a revision to this – an inclusion of special courses that would lead students to different fields of specialization. When you’re looking for advance studies, consider one that has an updated program curriculum.

•Teacher-student ratio. If you are looking for individualized attention, consider a school with relatively small class sizes.

•Institutional statistics. If you’re gunning to make it really big in the corporate world, choosing a school with remarkable placement statistics is imperative. Search through the records or ask around about the school’s reputation. Current students and alumni can give you a succinct background of the institution’s performance.

To determine which schools are the most reputable, the recent issue of Forbes magazine features an updated list of the best business schools in the world. It is the publication’s sixth biennial ranking of universities offering business-related courses based on company-administered surveys. The instrument used ranks universities based on return of investment (compensation five years after graduation minus tuition and the forgone salary during school). Ranking is as follows:

1. Dartmouth (Tuck)

2. Stanford

3. Harvard

4. Virginia (Darden)

5. Pennsylvania (harton)

6. Columbia

7. Chicago

8. Yale

9. Northwestern (Kellogg)

10. Cornell (Johnson)

11. NYU (Stern)

12. Duke (Fuqua)

13. UC Berkeley (Haas)

14. Texas-Austin (McCombs)

15. UNC (Kenan-Flagler)

16. Iowa (Tippie)

17. MIT (Sloan)

18. Brigham Young (Marriott)

19. Michigan State (Broad)

20. Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)

Textbooks at Lower Cost

Within the span of nearly 20 years, textbook costs in many schools have gone up considerably. However, there’s a great chance that families would be seeing price cuts in the near future. By availing of a number of alternatives, students can now save themselves more than a couple of dollars a year.

First, a bipartisan agreement on a proposal to control book prices was determined on and passed to congress, the summer of 2008. The agreement requires publishers to inform professors of book prices by providing them with accurate price lists so that professors could deliberate whether to assign a book to a class or not. This way, professors could consider if it would be worth it if they assign hideously expensive books to their students or not? Some students forgo buying assigned textbooks when they are too pricey. If aware of such concerns, professors may even start assigning selections that are easier on the pocket.

The new law also requires publishers to discontinue “bundled” textbooks, referring to packages that typically consist of a textbook, CD-ROMS along with workbooks and Web tools. While it is true that students get better grades when they learn about all the extras, some are choosing not to buy at all because the extras still add up to a considerable tag price. Now, with this law, students can buy just the tools they need. There won’t be any reason to spend money on the entire set anymore when a textbook is all they are after.

The emergence of E-books has also provided undergraduates with many options. While some may still appreciate the tactile experience of reading a book they’re holding in their hands, plenty of students actually prefer reading E-books nowadays. Some E-books may even be downloaded at a reduced price—with 30-50 percent discounts—or at no cost at all. There are already numerous E-books archived on many sites like Project Gutenberg. There’s also the trusty Google Books that is considerably helpful when students need to read or research on books that have no copyrights such as literary classics. It’s not any wonder why many undergraduates who insist on cutting on costs and saving their dimes and nickels while they earn their degrees in university believe the E-book is a better choice than its printed counterpart.

However, while it’s certainly a load off a student’s shoulders for textbook costs to be taken care of, downloading a number of books from many sites has its own drawbacks. One is the fact that downloading entire books feel a bit much like the illegal sharing of original works. Sites like textbooktorrents.com came under fire last year of July for offering entire books for download.

Another option that students can explore is to go to college bookstores or national companies that have a rent-a-textbook program. Why buy it if you can borrow it, at less the price? A student, who absolutely needs to buy an assigned book or two and is under a tight budget, can resort to the use of second-hand books to save up on fees. However, if a student ends up damaging or losing the book, he or she would need to pay the full retail price of the item.

So whether it’s the new law, e-books and book rentals at schools, one thing is for certain: cutting down on expenses is hard enough. Having these options handy would help tremendously in controlling the costs for parents and students