You don’t need another reason to get excited about your MBA, but here’s one anyway: Business schools spawn some awesome ideas, and they aren’t limited to finance or IT.

Take two submissions to recent business plan competitions. About a week ago, the New York Times covered Tough Mudder, born as a semifinalist entry in Harvard Business School’s annual business plan competition.  Founder Will Dean believed he could convince 500 people to pay to run a grueling, muddy obstacle course. After graduation, he launched the business with just Facebook ads and a website for marketing. And so far, he’s pulled it off”the company just staged its first race with an impressive 4,500 participants.

And just this past Sunday, the Financial Times featured some Scottish participants in a short entrepreneurship program at MIT’s Sloan School of Business. It’s not a traditional MBA, but it is a testament the nifty ideas you can cook up in the environment of a b-school. Michael Laurenson, a mussel farmer, was a member of the team that won the competition. Their concept was neither a social media start-up nor a new medical product. Instead, it was a device for improving fish farms. When we were at MIT the thing they said to us was: ˜Do what you are good at’, he says. His native Shetland isn’t ideal for finance or IT start-ups, so he stuck with what he knew: Aquaculture.

These examples fit nicely with our recent post on alternative careers chosen by MBAs. B-school grads can take their degrees in any number of directions. So pursue what inspires you!

An MBA degree does not necessarily have to be synonymous with a career in finance.

While most MBAs do still choose to go into finance and consulting, the options for business school graduates are not limited to these two fields.  Health care, for example, is attracting a substantial number of MBAs. A recent New York Times article points out:

Health care is the target career for 10 percent of students working on a master of business administration degree at Harvard Business School, making it the third most popular choice, behind financial services and consulting.

This trend is accelerating as the boomer generation ages and needs increased health care. In fact, the Times article notes business schools like Tufts and Duke already have programs focusing on health care management, and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business is in the process of creating a new masters of health care delivery science.

But if the health care sector doesn’t strike your fancy, you can follow in the footsteps of MBAs like Tim Elliott, who, as this BusinessWeek article describes, left his job as a vice-president of finance and technology to join MBAs Without Borders. The nonprofit program sends MBAs overseas for six months to work in the developing world, and it’s seen a substantial increase in applicants over the past year.

In fact, if you’re interested in nonprofits, there are now MBA programs that focus specifically on nonprofit management.  Beyond Grey Pinstripes is a great place to start if you’re looking for a business school devoted to sustainability and nonprofit management.

And for a list of the top 100 companies MBAs would like to work at, you can always refer to Fortune Magazine’s list.

A recent Business Week post about b-school summer reading lists got us thinking here at Manhattan GMAT. What other books might provide a good foundation for your first year? We turned to Chris Ryan, our Director of Instructor and Product Development, for some recommendations. His suggestions make good reading for incoming MBA students and curious applicants alike.

1. First and foremost, Chris recommends Larry Gonick’s Cartoon Guide to Statistics, which will give you a jump on the hardest quant class in your first semester, one on which other important classes ” like Finance and Operations ” depend. “If you actually understand the content in this book, you will do better in your stats class ” it’s as simple as that,” Chris tells us. The title might sound silly, but the content is truly useful.

2. A more theoretical start for your reading would be Co-Opetition (Adam M. Brandenburger and Barry J. Nalebuff), which covers game theory and its practical applications for business. The authors argue that to maximize success, companies sometimes have to cooperate with traditional rivals.

3.You should also pick up something about the economic turmoil of recent months. “You’re going to need to have an opinion,” Chris says. Pair your selection with Roger Lowenstein’s When Genius Failed, which covers the rise and fall of Long Term Capital Management, a hedge fund that brought about a late-90s precursor to the current financial crisis.

Plus, for a b-school beach read, try Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely), a nice introduction to behavioral economics.

For more suggestions, try Business Week’s list.

Thinking of going to school abroad?  You’re not alone! Applications are up sharply at European B-schools, according to Business Week. It’s part of an upward trend worldwide, but the increase is particularly high in Europe, where many institutions say apps are up 10 percent or more. The Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium has doubled its class in the past year, while Switzerland’s St. Gallen has grown its part-time program 100 percent. The trend is also ramping up competition in many places–Westminster Business School, in the UK, has had to wait-list full-time MBA candidates for the first time in the school’s history.

The piece attributes the growth largely to career changers and young people looking for a recession safe haven that will bolster their resume. European schools are also increasingly attractive to international students who plan to return, thanks to easier visa requirements and widely dispersed alumni networks.

If you’re in the market for an international GMAT course, check out our new London offerings, as well as our Live Online classes. And if you just want to take a trip to Europe, the dollar’s getting stronger, so a Big Mac will only be $8 or so.

Our friends at mbaMission have put together an impressive set of Insider’s Guides to Top Business Schools.  These guides can be very useful in distinguishing one school’s program from another and helping students tailor their essays accordingly.

We are VERY happy to report that current Manhattan GMAT Course Students will receive one of these guides (a $25 value) for FREE.  If you’re a current student, go to your student center and click on the right menu on the top call-out.  Or click on this link and log-in.  Thank you mbaMission for making this benefit available to our students!

US News and World Report recently released its latest b-school rankings, and the folks over at admissions consulting firm MBA Mission gave their take on the news here.

(To echo something in the MBA Mission post, it is far more important to make sure a school is right for you than it is to make sure that the school has a high ranking. Please don’t get all caught up in artificial rankings and then find yourself at the wrong school for you.)

If you want to go straight for the US News report, follow this link.