As an ambitious student or a working professional with a few years of experience under their belt, you may have thought about going to the US to get an MBA degree. After all, MBAs are an American creation and while universities worldwide now offer the degree, US business schools still dominate the space. According to the Financial Times 2016 ranking, seven of the top ten and eleven of the top twenty MBA programs are American. Similarly US business schools fill eight of the top ten and fourteen of the top twenty slots in The Economist 2015 ranking.What are some of the key considerations for deciding whether getting an MBA in the US is right for you? For the purpose of this article, I am assuming that you are UK-based and are interested in a finance career.Do you need an MBA at all?Before deciding whether to go to the US for an MBA the more basic question is whether you need an MBA at all. If you already work in finance at an investment bank or asset management firm, you may be better off not interrupting your career to get an MBA. The direct expenses as well as foregone earnings might be very high.In the US there is a well-worn path followed by investment bank analysts of switching to private equity and venture capital firms after a couple of years and then going to a top business school. In the UK there may be less need for an MBA to progress in a corporate finance or a related position; look at the background of more senior people at your firm, as well as the career progression of those with only undergraduate credentials to gauge whether an MBA is necessary.Those currently working in or interested in quant finance jobs should think particularly hard about the suitability of an MBA program. Business schools, especially those with strong reputations in finance offer courses that would be valuable for quants, but since MBA programs are designed to create business managers, you might feel that the required coursework in other areas is largely irrelevant. Again, take your guidance from the experience of others in quant finance that you seek to emulate. In some cases, a more technical degree might be the better choice.A common motivator for wanting to get an MBA is that you are not currently in finance and want to make a career transition into investment banking, private equity, venture capital or hedge funds. For these people getting the right MBA can be quite helpful in successfully making this transition which will probably result in a significant salary boost.Is a grad school in the US right for you?I’m going to cut through all the nonsense that you hear about selecting business schools. Reputation counts for a lot when it comes to getting an MBA. This is even more applicable if your goal is to get hired at a top firm. If this is your objective and you don’t have a hard constraint keeping you in the UK, apply to several top business schools, regardless of their location. The precise list of schools will depend on how strong a candidate you are but I suggest casting a fairly wide net and applying to some schools that represent a stretch. You might surprise yourself particularly if you do exceptionally in writing your applications.Once you have list of schools that you have been accepted to, the picture will usually become much more clear. If you’ve gotten into one of the very top schools such as Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, or Columbia, you are in a fortunate position and should seriously consider going to the US since these schools will generally be better launch pads for a finance career than most UK business schools with the arguable exception of the London Business School. Do your homework, but this advice will generally apply even if you plan to return immediately to the UK for your first post-MBA job.If you didn’t crack the very top schools, you need to think about various other considerations. If you want to live and work in the US, then going to a US business school can be the ideal way to make the transition. If all of your education and work experience was gained in the UK, then going abroad can help expand your perspective. Your fellow students may be predominately Americans, but you will look at the world differently simply by being outside the UK. Many students will also find that classroom discussions have a different dynamic than what they have experienced in the UK. The availability of summer internship opportunities is a particularly important consideration especially if you are looking to transition into finance. Other considerations include the size and geographic distribution of a school’s alumni and the availability of admissions options for students with little or no prior work experience.A final point to be aware of is that you will need a visa if you plan on working in the US after you complete your MBA. This has been something of a sore point for foreign students at US business schools since the number of work visas granted by the US each year is less than the number of applications. There are various ways to navigate the system so again do your homework before making any final decisions.