I hesitated tagging this post 'practical advice' since I'm not quite sure how practical the following will be. But here are some random pieces of advice about the MBA applications procedure (more on the MBA itself in a later post) that this soon to be ex-student has.
About figuring out where to go
Follow your heart. Everything else will slot into place. In general you make life easier if you take certain things into account (i.e. if you want to work in London, it's easier to be in London) but I strongly believe that you make your own luck. Figure out where you can see yourself living for the duration of the course (are you a city person or do you want to live out in the middle of nowhere?). Try and work out if you like the people (students, staff) there. Visit as many schools as time and budget allow. Read the blogs. Talk to as many students and alumni as you can find (most of them do not mind talking about themselves if you ask politely). Send polite emails and ask questions. Try and work out what matters to you (certain electives, location, type of classmate) and judge by those criteria. Rankings are interesting, but do not mean that the top school should be YOUR top school.
About the application
Make it interesting. Adcoms all across the world read hundreds of thousands of applications and it makes their life nicer if they read interesting ones. Don't show off but don't hide information away. Be sensible about the balance of work and non-work examples. Have someone else who knows you well read it to see if it sounds like you. Submit it. Then stop worrying about it. And do not ask if if you should retake the GMAT with a score of 720.
About the interview
Be early. If you're unsure of the dresscode, ask (there's nothing worse than being over or underdressed to help increase nerves for no good reason). Think ahead and plan some answers to common questions (why the MBA? Why this school? Why now? What do you want to do post MBA? Why you? Examples of teamwork, leadership etc), but don't rehearse them to the point where you become a robot reciting pre-rehearsed answers. Have something interesting to say (ideally, you'd be an interesting person so that shouldn't be too hard). Prepare some questions for the interviewer and try to make them interesting (what did you like best of your experience? What electives did you particularly like? What is the one activity that I should not miss?). Do not drink during the interview (as in: drink alcohol). Know your application inside out and expect detailed questions. Don't be rude or disparaging. Be honest. Be nice. Don't slag off anyone (former bosses, other schools). See also this about my own LBS interview and trawl the other blogs to see what their experiences were.
In general
Relax. Which is the hardest thing to do. But try and enjoy the process. No matter how well you prepare, how many questions you ask and how much you read the blogs, your experience will be totally different than you think. Prepare a little, then relax. Be yourself.
D**n, I think this makes for good dating advice too ;-)
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