How To Impress Current Students While Networking With Your MBA Programs

Angela Guido is back with 5 questions to ask current students at your target school. Smart MBA questions to ask as you network with students are one of the best ways to learn about the schools you are applying to, but good MBA discussion topics will also distinguish you from other applicants; especially this year, when other strategies rely on face-to-face interactions. What questions to ask MBA students and why you should be asking them are the focus of this week’s MBA Monday.

Be sure to come back next week when we cover questions for faculty and alumni. Good luck in your applications!

#MBAMonday #Questions

Prefer to read? Here’s the transcript:

So, What To Ask MBA Students?

So, you’re networking remotely, you're trying to get to know your schools from a distance. I've got five great questions to ask current students today as you seek to get to know your target programs more intimately.

Here they are, really simple, really direct, five great questions to ask current students when you're networking with your target MBA programs. Don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications to get MBA Monday news as soon as it comes out.

Question number one: how did you choose this school?
Question number two: what so far have been your favorite aspects of your MBA experience?
Question number three: for whom is this MBA culture not a fit? Now you're asking about, for whom is this culture not a fit. Because sometimes you reveal a lot more in the negative space than you do in the positive. What you'll find is that most schools, most MBA programs, culturally are really similar. Everyone is going to say similar things. It's collaborative. It's collegial. It's entrepreneurial. It's exciting. It's fun. It's supportive. It's, you know, like a constant party. Everyone's going to say some version of these things. But if you ask who doesn't fit in well at this program, then you're going to get a much more tailored, much more specific answer that will help you understand that this, in fact, is what's different between the different schools culturally.
Question number four: what do you wish you could improve or change about the program? It's always good to know the downsides. You always want to know what did someone not necessarily like about that experience, because it's not always coming up roses and puppy dogs. Everywhere you go there are onions. There are always negative experiences in life. So, the question is what particular flavor of negative experiences has this person had and are those acceptable negative experiences to you? Or alternatively, maybe they would actually be great experiences for you. But it's very revealing to understand what would this person change about the program.
And then finally, the last question you want to ask is: what do you wish someone had told you before you got to campus? And here's where you'll get the juiciest piece of wisdom from the student, that they have to offer. It'll be helpful not only to help you understand the program and how it operates, but also how you can best prepare yourself to be a member of this MBA community.

That's it. Those are your five questions to ask current students. This has been #MBAMonday. We'll see you next week. That's it. Five questions to ask current students. Have fun. Why am I talking so fast?