The location of your college to your career is as important as an egg to an omelette; it shapes the path of your career in a crucial manner. While pondering on How to Select the Right B-School for You, you stand on crossroads trying to gauge which location is well suited for you. To sieve down the options in your head, here is a list of 4 things that the location of your B-School determines-
1. It determines the job opportunities and internships you will come across.
Employers find it somewhat pain free to look for employees close to their place of business. As a result, it directly affects your chances of getting hands-on practice opportunities and meeting business leaders in the area nearby. Kellogg School of Management and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business are both located in Illinois, which features brand houses like Kraft Foods, Abbott Laboratories, RR Donnelley, ADM, and The Walgreen Company to name a few. These companies play recruiters to universities nearby.
2. It is a place where there is a chance for you to build a strong network with business leaders, alumni and potential recruiters.
When you study at a B-school, make sure to communicate well with everybody; the world is round. The more contacts you make, the better. Maintaining a strong network will help you at the time of need for aids and to cognize about employment opportunities. HKUST School of Business and Management is located near Hong Kong’s Central Business District (CBD), a prime location to mingle with business professionals and be a part of their network.
3. It feeds your hunger for being an entrepreneur.
For examples, Silicon Valley, as we all know, is a hub for people establishing start-ups. A B-school near it, such as the Graduate Business School of Stanford University, which has about 16% of its graduates from the class of 2016 that went straight to put up their own businesses, provides for a prime location will help you seek investors and gain learning experiences. IESE’s campus in Barcelona is well thought out as the city is Europe’s most dynamic business hubs. The scope for entrepreneurship is always wide open to students in such quintessential locales.
4. It concludes your social life.
You would like to imagine the sparkling backdrop of NYC but you might end up in College Station, Texas, secluded by a long 3 hours’ drive from the city. The type of location matters. If the school is set in a rural or isolated area and you have never had the experience of living in a secluded place, far away from the city, you might want to consider settling up for somewhere urban. You have to spend a handful of years in the place you decide on, sometimes even after graduation, so acclimating oneself to the surroundings is the best way to blend in.
Furthermore, you must also take into account if you would be able to afford the accommodation and living expenses in the city. Other than this, you should be able to adapt to the weather conditions of the location you decide on. If you come from a tropical country and plan to shift to the UK, it will be hard for you to conform to the cold temperatures and harsh weather conditions throughout the year; it is going to affect your performance directly. You should feel comfortable. You should also consider scrutinizing about the campus facilities; do not take it at the face value.
A strategic location is something that even aficionados miss on; planning your career goals carefully requires you to analyse things from all the loose ends.
Try considering business schools from the perspective of the Best Student Cities in the World, in terms of affordability, cultural diversity, employment opportunities, and tolerance among inhabitants.
