“If you can’t measure, you can’t manage!”The conclusion so far is that organizations which produce the most well-known rankings do not have any consensus about the “best” business school. Rankings may be useful when one wants to compare MBA's on specific criteria, but does not give an overall rating to choose from.
Most rankings guides include only a select group of schools, rather than ranking all schools, and it's not always clear how this initial group of schools has been selected. Many rankings surveys ask deans, corporate recruiters, executives, and students to make lists of what they consider to be the top schools.
Where to find good rankings of MBA programs and Business Schools?
- Financial Times [Worldwide]
Every two years, the Financial Times ranks MBA programs based on over 20 factors, the most heavily weighted of which, at 20% each, are the current salaries of each school's graduates and the percentage of salary increase "from the beginning of the MBA to three years after graduation." This ranking is considered to be the most international ranking of all. - The Economist [Worldwide]
The Economist put IESE suddenly on the top a few years ago. This makes the ranking less credible. This was due partly to un-audited data, where IESE reported average starting salary of over $150,000 at the same time the schools own website sited an average starting salary post completion of the program of under $70,000. Since that time, the ranking from the Economist had less impact on the MBA planet. - Forbes [Worldwide]
Forbes ranks MBA programs according to their average return on investment "by comparing the cost of attaining an MBA--foregone income and tuition--to the prospect of a bigger salary." Alumni from each of the schools provide pre- and post-MBA salary information that Forbes uses to make these calculations. - Wall Street Journal [US Centric]
Each year, the Wall Street Journal ranks business schools that are accredited by the International Association for Management Education, as well as any foreign schools that are recommended by its panel of "business-school deans, business-school associations, recruiters and career-services directors." The rankings are based solely on the opinions of MBA recruiters, who are asked to rate schools on a ten-point scale for each of 27 criteria having to do with the quality of each school and its graduates. - Business Week [US Centric]
Business Week publishes rankings for full-time, part-time, and executive MBA programs every two years. (Updates to ranked schools' profiles are published yearly.) Business Week's rankings are based on a combination of student and corporate recruiter surveys (each weighted at 45%), and an "intellectual capital component," which measures "school's influence and prominence in the realm of ideas" (weighted at 10%). - US News & World Report [US Centric]
Each year, US News & World Report ranks full-time and part-time graduate business programs accredited by the AACSB International. According to their web site, full-time programs are ranked according to the program quality assessment by peer academics, program quality assessment by recruiters, mean starting salary and bonus, at-graduation job placement rate, job placement rate three months after graduation, mean GMAT of new entrants to full-time program, mean undergraduate GPA of new entrants to full-time program, and the proportion of applicants for admission to the full-time program who were rejected. Part-time programs are ranked "solely on the basis of nomination by business school deans and MBA program directors. Schools that receive seven or more nominations are ranked, listed in order of the number of nominations received." - The Consus Group [US Centric]
While many business school rankings fluctuate wildly from year to year, TCG's methodology produces a stable, accurate picture of America's best business schools over a long period of time. The Consus Group uses a different methodology to compile its annual business school rankings, based on Published Rankings from large institutions, Selectivity, Salary, Placement and Yield. Even if you don't like the methodology, TCG gives you an historic of large rankings over the past 10 years. - WHICH MBA ranking [Student Centric]
To qualify for inclusion in the Economist Intelligence Unit rankings, the schools with full-time MBA programs that responded to their survey had to meet various thresholds of data provision, as well as attaining a minimum number of responses to a survey gauging the opinion of current students and alumni who graduated within the last three years.
What do the rankings mean something?
It depends. If you are looking for what is the best MBA, and I am looking at it from a financial point of view only, then Forbes is probably a good starting point for you, if you prefer looking at the international aspect, FT is your lead, from the USA, BW will do. But overall you can not have a ranking of ranking. What you have to look at are the following in the different ranking:
- Constistancy: If your school is in all the rankings
- Trend: The trend over the past 5/10/20 years
- Long Tail: The alumni Network size
- Quality Learning: The quality of teaching (PHD, Ratio, undergrad…)
- Quality peers: The quality of the intake (GMAT, diverse, average age…)
How to interpret them? From my point of view, the classification below is what I observe from different rankings, meeting with alumni, visiting schools and reputation in the business world:
US Leaders | US Underdogs |
• Harvard University • Stanford University • University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) ----------------------- • Columbia University • University of Chicago • Northwestern University (Kellogg) • MIT (Sloan) |
• Dartmouth (Tuck) |
| |
Non-US Leaders | Non-US Underdogs |
• IMD • INSEAD • London Business School | • ESADE - Spain • HEC - Paris • IE Business School - Spain • IESE - Spain • Indian School of Business • Queens University - Canada • SDA Bocconi - Italy • University of Cambridge (Judge) |
Links
- Scorecard is an interactive alternative to standard business school rankings. Using information from hundreds of top schools, Scorecard allows you to ‘weight’ key criteria such as Return on Investment, Strength of Faculty and Diversity of Student Body to create a personalized ranking tailored to your unique requirements.
- Martin Schatz, Ph.D., in “What's wrong with MBA ranking surveys?” proposed to enlighten all of us on ranking and the purposes of them.
- Mastermas.com is a Spanish website that compile all the list of the different MBA ranking in the world