Hey Yoga Girl!
congrats on your decision to start researching/planning your MBA (this is the first step, and definitely time consuming)! i know for me, i had spent a good number of years fighting it, and then finally a couple months back, i suddenly woke up and decided that i was ready to go back to school!
canuck's criteria for the MBA were pretty much my criteria as well. i definitely wanted a program that was triple accredited, had an amazing reputation, highly ranked, but also delivered quality programs in the format i wanted.
I applied to 3 schools:
Cass Business School
Manchester Business School
University of Strathclyde
all 3 school are ranked very high on FT and triple accredited (Strathclyde ranked much lower than Cass and MBS, but still made FT rankings). I got into all 3 programs, but my decision came down to MBS and Cass. I chose Cass (and Cass was my first choice), and i'll tell you why
Cass is based in DIFC, with strong ties to the financial center as well as to several prominent organizations/companies/councils regionally and globally. MBS and CASS are ranked neck and neck on FT, although MBS has an MBA and Cass has an EMBA (which is ranked in top 5 globally i believe)
MBS is a great program, and a great school, and its almost 80,000AED less in tuition than Cass (supppppper expensive) however, i didn't want to do a blended learning program (MBS has a mix of online learning plus i believe 6 days that you attend in workshops each semester-- it just wasnt enough for me) but there are several people who would find this valuable and to their preferences. MBS is a great program.
i chose Cass because it was full classroom learning-- once a month theres a 4 day weekend where we sit in workshops with the students (the problem is that once a month you have to take 2 days off, a thurs and a sunday). the course is the same course offered in London, and you have the opportunity to do your electives in London, as well as participated in electives in south africa, brazil, china, etc etc)
i haven't started my MBA (EMBA to be more exact) but i will be starting in september and am very excited! the program is one of the strongest (if not the strongest) in Dubai, and has a very strong cohort each intake (they are very selective)
anyway, that's my feedback for now-- we'll see how excited i am when i'm drowning in work!!!
good luck!
beenie