Random acts of kindness

On the way home from work tonight I stopped at a petrol station that I often use, to fill up the car. You know what it's like, long day at work, couple of free days ahead, but also a couple of kms of traffic waiting for me. I walk in to pay, all absent-minded and all, and the guy behind the counter says 'hey, you've got a new hairdo!' (which is correct, had it done since the last time I was there)... 'looks nice!'. Wham, there it was. He made my day. He didn't have to be nice, but he was. Without any other motive (or maybe it was a clever crm-ploy.... nah, it couldn't be, could it?)(no, he was DEFINITELY not hitting on me. Trust me.). Random acts of kindness. Bless 'em.

On a more practical note: research on b-schools. I've used several methods to figure out more about the schools I was interested in and thought it might be helpful to share them.

* MBA Tour: every autumn and spring the MBA tour hits the road. A good way to gather lots of brochures and talk to adcom people. Downsides: lots of elbow work required, can get quite busy, not all schools go to all locations (but it's hard to find out which schools are where from the topmba website).

* Visit the school: every school offers a more or less formal way in which you can visit the school. LBS offers prospective students class visits and hosts information sessions both on and off campus (check the LBS website at www.london.edu for details), IESE offers Open Days on campus and hosts information sessions in Barcelona and European cities. Wharton offers a whole host of on-campus sessions, including class visits and lunches with current students.

* Read all about it. Books like Richard Montauk's How to get into the top MBA programs and Symonds' How to get the MBA admissions edge can help you get a good feel of what each school is like. Other reading material: schools' websites, blogs (of course!), Business Week forums (take some of what's on here with a big pinch of salt though).

* Hear all about it. Most adcom's will put you in touch with current students or alumni who are usually happy to answer your questions. School clubs host a plethora of conferences, attending them is a good way of finding out about the school. There's usually a list of upcoming conferences and the clubs that organize them on the schools' websites.