If you've concluded that your professional resume could benefit from the added star power of a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, then the first logical step would be to consider the schools within your academic and financial reach.

As with so much else in the American experience, you'll likely find yourself blessed with choices, starting with your state university's business education offerings and ascending up into the stratosphere of elite business schooling. You may have already assessed what your state schools have to offer. But, what about the truly elite business schools?

There are many advantages of attending a top-rated business school. First of all, prestigious schools are much more likely to have faculties peppered with business or literary superstars. And the teacher-student ratio is also much more likely to be in your favor, with a physical learning environment more amenable to your needs.

An elite business school is also more likely to have reciprocal programs with leading corporations, which allow students first-hand experience of the workings of the corporate world and its titans.

Students at Stanford University's School of Business, for instance, benefit from the school's proximity to famed Silicon Valley with its abundance of high-tech and other first-rank firms. Many of the corporate officers running those firms are also Stanford alumni, which makes them especially amena