Schools

Choosing schools is a daunting task. There is so much research involved. B-School rankings available through various sources seemed to be a good point to start. So I went to the business week site and went through their list of top 30 b-schools in the US. Then I looked at their specialty rankings for the majors I was interested in. After that I collected all the data I thought was relevant (average GMAT scores, work experience, acceptance rate etc.). I entered all this data into excel and came up with my own formulas for calculating which schools are best for me and what are the chances of my getting admitted to them. They don't always match do they? In any case I short listed six schools which appealed to me. Now I need to do in depth research into these schools:

• Get Brochures
  
• Sign up for admissions events
  
• Get Placement Data
  
• Look at student profiles
  
• Get a list of courses being offered
  
• Look at the research going on in the majors I am interested in
  
• Soak in all the data available on the schools website
  
• Figure out if the teaching methodology fits my personality
  

That is all I have for now. Hopefully I can get more insights into it through advice from people who have gone through this process before.

I read somewhere that the list of short listed schools should contains "stretches","possibles" and "probables". The problem I have is that my list does not contain any "probables". Am I being over ambitious or just under selling myself?