This is a guest post by Alvina Lopez.
When students pick undergraduate schools, they often look at rankings to determine which school has the best faculty-to-student ratio, the nicest dorms, the most state-of-the-art libraries and recreational centers, and the prettiest campuses. And while these rankings are important, valuable tools for comparing schools, MBA rankings are even more closely examined. Business publications like the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, FT.com, and BusinessWeek release regular MBA rankings, and they all differ. Some of these publications even create different lists based on different qualifications like American schools vs. international programs; readers’ choice; school size; and more. So how are prospective MBA students supposed to interpret these lists? Below is an outline to help you understand what MBA rankings are based on and what they mean.
Each publication or institution that releases a list of MBA rankings uses different qualifications to determine their top picks. Before scanning lists, review the methodology used, so that you have a better idea of what the rankings mean. The Economist, for instance, explains their methodology here as being based on the MBA market at the time the list was prepared. They asked schools with full-time MBA programs only from around the world to participate in a survey, and then selected the top 100 from their choices. So, if you want to attend a school that only offers part-time MBA programs and do not see its name on an MBA rankings list, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the program is considered poor: it just wasn’t qualified for that particular list.
In most MBA rankings, many aspects of the program and school are considered, including student-to-faculty ratio, program size, financial aid and value, career services, student assessment, recruiters, number of student who found jobs soon after graduating, size and influence of alumni network, number of offered programs, average GMAT score, student diversity, campus services and facilities, and others. Publications like BusinessWeek develop different lists to help students narrow down their search and find more focused information on the schools they’re applying to. Two of these more specific lists include “ROI: Business Schools with Bang for the Buck” and “European B-Schools.”
Top-rated MBA programs and schools will have received favorable scores in most if not all of the qualifications listed above. There may be very slight differences in scores in schools, so don’t cross off a program just because it isn’t ranked in the top 10 or 20 on a single list. Compare lists, and make sure you always read the methodology and individual school report before making a decision to apply to that program or not. Campus visits, interviews with students and faculty, financial aid, and the appropriate program offerings are also very significant factors when choosing an MBA program.
By-line:
This guest post was contributed by Alvina Lopez, who writes on the topics of accredited colleges online. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez@gmail.com.
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