John Byrne, granddaddy of rankings, creator of the 1988 Businessweek ranking, which caused (to quote Ghostbusters) “Fire and Brimestone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!…dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria.” Schools reacted to that ranking with significant change and improvement to curriculum, faculty training, student selection and corporate education. Now Mr….
Sustainable MBAs
Thinking about a career in sustainable enterprise? Each year the Aspen Institute ranks MBA programs in their Beyond Grey Pinstripes edition on the schools’ ability to provide curriculum, research and careers while looking at the triple bottom line. This list continues to grow, but according to the 2010 rankings, candidates looking at MBA programs that…
Three Top Tips for Attending MBA Fairs
The MBA Tour will reach the four corners of the globe this fall, having four separate tours in Asia, India, Europe, and the United States, followed by tours to Latin America (October) and Canada (November). The tour events provide you with great opportunities to meet with school representatives and learn more about the schools. However,…
The Relative Unimportance of High School Rankings
There are people, institutions, school districts and media organizations that care a tremendous amount about the Newsweek ranking of America’s Best High Schools, which was released last week. The rankings are based upon the number of Advanced Placement exams (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), or Cambridge exams given in the school divided by the number of…
The Admissions Yield
As colleges and universities admit their freshman classes, they are trying to read your mind as to whether you are likely to attend. That’s right. To some, a measure of college prestige is the yield rate, or the percentage of students who accept an offer of admission to a particular institution. The higher the yield…
FT Global Rankings: Expansionist Dreamers
B-schools are no longer content staying on home soil, reports the Financial Times in a supplementary article to their recent Global MBA Rankings. The latest expansionist trend is to extend the traditional four-walled classroom overseas. Harvard Business School used to pride itself on its steadfast commitment to bring students to the school and NOT to…
“Rankings Fever” Hits International Rankings Scene
Whenever a major ranking report is released (like last month’s Financial Times rankings), the world starts to go crazy about rankings: Are rankings valuable? Are they accurate? How can prospective students benefit from rankings? How do you read rankings? And lastly, the topic of a recent Chronicle article, how will global rankings affect global education?…
Financial Times Global 2010 MBA Rankings
The Financial Times published today its 2010 ranking of global MBA programs. Its ranking attempts to “assess the effect of the MBA on … subsequent career progression and salary growth.” Consequently it draws its data from the schools themselves and from surveys of graduates at least three years after earning their MBA degree. In building…
Study Casts Doubt on Rankings
25% of the criteria that gets measured by U.S. News & World Report for their annual rankings is based on school “reputation.” New research reveals that “reputational rankings” are not updated as accurately as prospective students think and may not reveal much about a given school’s actual reputation. In an Inside Higher Ed article entitled…
Stanford Wins First Place for Forbes’ “The Most Satisfied MBAs”
Forbes took its survey findings from “The Best Business Schools” and compiled a second rankings report: “The Most Satisfied MBAs.” Stanford won top slot for both rankings. It is #1 for providing the best return on investment for its graduates, as well as for churning out MBAs who are extremely satisfied with their current jobs…
Weighing Cost and Quality in Public Universities
A recent Kiplinger article discusses how the current economic crisis relates to their recently released rankings of the 100 best values in public colleges and universities. The Situation Public colleges and universities are experiencing a spike in enrollment due to their significantly lower price tags. Demand for financial aid has simultaneously increased. These schools are…
How to Use the MBA Rankings
In anticipation of the Financial Times rankings’ publication, expected to be released in January, Accepted is offering you a special report, written by Linda Abraham, founder and president of Accepted.com, on the ins and outs of MBA rankings. In this special rankings report you’ll learn: What the published rankings are and are not. How to…
Financial Times European B-school Rankings Are Out!
The Financial Times released its 2009 European Business School Rankings this week. Take some time to read up on FT’s ranking methodology and to play around in the extensive databases and charts which rank the top European B-schools programs as well as graduate salary rankings. Top 10 European Business Schools1. HEC Paris, France2. London Business…
BusinessWeek EMBA and Part Time MBA Rankings
BusinessWeek has published its biannual rankings of EMBA programs. The top five EMBA programs are: Kellogg Chicago Booth Wharton Columbia USC Marshall BusinessWeek also published its part-time MBA program rankings and its rankings of executive education programs. Its methodology in all three cases focuses on “end-user satisfaction.” The articles and videos accompanying the rankings are recommended if…
Beyond Grey Pinstripes Ranking of MBA Programs
The Aspen Institute published last week its biannual ranking of MBA programs, “Beyond Grey Pinstripes.” This ranking ignores admissions criteria and abandons ROI. Through surveys of 149 participating schools, it attempts to rank the programs according to their “social impact management” or addressing of social, environmental or ethical topics. The goal: “spotlight innovative full-time MBA…
Forbes ROI MBA Rankings for 2010
Forbes published today its 2010 MBA rankings for US and non-US MBA programs. The Forbes ranking is based on ROI, specifically “the return on investment achieved by the graduates from the class of 2004.” Forbes surveyed 17,000 alumni at 103 schools and heard back from 24% of those grads in compiling its data. For the…
How Business Schools Have Failed Business
Business school deans and educational thought leaders are doing a lot of soul-searching concerning the role and culpability of graduate business schools in the economic downturn. Dean Robert Bruner of Darden on April 5 wrote on Twitter “Controversy over the role of B-schools in the crisis. Did they warn strongly enough about the risks of toxic…
Rankings (Part 5 of 5): 8 Flaws in Rankings
How NOT to use the rankings Don’t give them too much importance. Don’t replace research and self-reflection with school ranking to determine where you apply or attend. Using them mindlessly could contribute to an expensive, time-consuming mistake. Blinding yourself to the rankings’ flaws leads to poor decisions. Consider this partial list of limitations: They…
US News Grad Rankings Are Out!
The US News just released its 2009 Grad School Rankings. I’m going to list the top ten for business school, law school, and medical school (research) and provide links to the ranking methodology for each category. For other graduate specialties, please visit the US News site. Business School Rankings and methodology 1. Harvard2. Stanford3. Northwestern Kellogg…
Rankings: Bragging Rights? (Part 4 of 5)
Why do graduate schools both brag about their ranking and complain about the rankings? The rankings reverse roles. The schools are being graded, and they don’t like it any more than you do – unless of course you earn that A or that award. Then you want to broadcast the news. The reaction is as…
