I've got my final B-Schools list

After I took the GMAT and the TOEFL, it was clear that the next step was shortlist the B-Schools I will apply for. It's been more than a month since I finished the tests and now I have narrowed and arranged the schools in order to take the next step in my application process.

I decided to apply to 5 schools in the first round and 3 on the second. I won't tell the names in this post, nonetheless they're not so hard to guess since I'll talk about some criteria I used to shortlist my initial selection. I concluded that it's more a result of a subjective analysis than a quantitative comparison of ratios and figures. Of course, some objective features must be considered but without deeper thinking it's impossible to know whether a school is a good choice for you.

Among the main criteria I chose to shortlist my selection, I think these ones were capital:

• Location: Admittedly, to be in the place where top businesses run is very important to me. Top school + beautiful place to launch my career abroad, it's like a dream, isn't it?
• Students' passion for the school: All of my students-network friends have a very big enthusiasm for their school, however, there are some of them that are strongly passionate about their school, when you listen to them, all you can wish is: "I want to live that as well!"
• Strength in finance: Due to my finance background and long-term goals, I selected schools that provide strong finance-oriented courses so that I can major my MBA in finance.

One of my students-network friends suggested me to do a final research in the B-Schools' web sites so that I can refine my own vision about the facts and features that are the most important for the schools themselves. I agree with that, I'll take some time to do it.