Watch top business schools admission interviews - Premium MBA admissions interview videos and services

ZoomInterviews.com is a provider of premium MBA admissions interview videos and services. This is an excerpt from the Zoom Method, an admissions interview preparation program developed by ZoomInterviews.

The importance of school research in preparing for your admissions interview cannot be overstated. While it's important to articulate your own professional experience during the interview, research is indispensible in being able to convey your strong fit with the school.

Researching your target schools is actually a two fold process: (1) acquiring knowledge about the school and (2) applying that knowledge to understand why the school is a great fit for you. The second part of the process is inherently personal, as what attracts you to a school is largely determined by your professional goals, values, personality and personal life circumstances. In fact, because top business schools share many similarities, it is really the unique qualities of a given school that resonate with you that make for compelling interview answers that affirm your strong fit and interest.

You may have accessed the resources listed below to do your initial research on your target schools. Think about the specific facts and details you gleaned from these different resources that you will want to incorporate into your preparation for your interviews.

• Business school guide books such as those offered by Kaplan, the Princeton Review, the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report and other publications.

• The school’s brochure and website will provide extensive information about the MBA program. In addition, many top tier programs include student profiles on their website to give you a glimpse of student life in the program.

• ZoomInterviews has made available School Profiles (http://zoominterviews.com/guidelines/mba-schools/), one-page summaries of essential information for top MBA programs. The profiles have facts and figures about the school that any well-informed candidate should be familiar with and be able to casually bring up during the interview.

• Admissions officers will share (and sell) their school’s program through MBA forums and information sessions on-campus, as well as region-specific events across continents.

• Several major business media maintain sections of their website devoted to business school and the MBA admissions process. Well-known sites include BusinessWeek.com, the Economist Intelligence Unit (eiu.com), and US News & World Report (usnews.com).

• And of course, your research would not be complete without speaking with a school’s current students and alumni. The conversations are invaluable to get an insider’s view of the program and the overall MBA experience at each school.