Location Advantage

In real estate, they say, location is everything.  How does this translate for your business school applications?  It means that if you're applying to a school that's located in an area known for an industry, you better research why that's important and how that will add to the value of that school.

Obviously, Columbia and NYU have the NYC advantage, and Haas and Stanford have the Silicon Valley advantage.  If you're a media or finance person, go to the school's events webpage and see who comes to speak that you'd be interested in.  Incorporate that into the Essay One (why us, why now question).  For example, since being at CBS, I've had the opportunity to hear and talk to, whether through club events, guest lecturers, university events, people like:

Finance - Pete Peterson, James Chanos, Jerry Speyer (also real estate);
Advertising - Domenico Vitale (PIC), Rich O'Leary (McCann),Shelly Lazarus (Ogilvy), Donny Deutsch
Media - MTV, Bravo TV, Foursquare, Tumblr, Thrillist
Retail - Chanel, LVMH, Proenza Schouler, Ann Taylor, Loro Piana, Gilt, Steve Alan

And I'm only listing those coming to the top of my head.  My point is, when you're doing your research, look up the clubs you'd be interested in joining, see what events they have; look at the university events website and see which speakers you'd be interested in hearing (one of my favorites was Salman Rushdie at a Columbia-wide event).  Weave these into your essays and the AdCom will be impressed, for sure.