Do business schools prefer regional ties?

I'll help bump, interested as well but I doubt it really matters. Full time is full time, whether you come from NY or SF. Might be different for part time / executive MBA candidates though, for the obvious proximity between school / work.

No, I’m from the west coast and got into an east coast school.

CBS is very worried about being a safety school for H/S/W and really pushes the Center of NY thing so I think it would be a leg up there.

i think so but because partners are likely to be stanford alums in sf etc. and if so, hopefully are donors/actively involved with the school and help push you through the process.

It may go against you, especially in Bay Area and to a lesser extent NYC. Schools are seeking diversity in terms of where students are coming from.

Berkeley/Stanford I think is actually tougher for locals given that many are looking to stay local and the # of slots far exceeds the # of qualified applicants. They don't say it explicitly but there is likely a target # of slots for locals...

Yes and no. It depends on your story and post-MBA goals. If having a strong local presence helps that story, than it can certainly help. But a desperate play to show local interest is easily read through and can backfire in more than one way.

Most local skews in employment reports are due to demographics (more folks in Chicago apply to Booth than MIT) than to a true skew towards local apps.

A little, yes. But then it doesn't really matter because Wharton has an equally established clout in finance.

Regional school with strong regional ties may prefer local people, but the national schools strongly prefer diversity. Being local can work against you, unless you, like Johnny's friend make a really good case for staying local, and probably have a lot of other strong qualifications too.

I've seen "being local" work against applicants more than for them at national programs, mainly because a lot of people want to stay close to home.

Linda

Yes, absolutely. So long as you show personal interest in that locale. Specifically: volunteering/community involvement/immersion in locale that subtly comes out in resume/essays/story in b-school applications.

Would love for someone familiar with MBA adcoms to chime in. Your network effects your placement, which in turn impacts how attractive you are to MBA programs - so my hunch is yes.