What Is a Best Business School?
Stuart Nachbar
December 11, 2008
Just before Thanksgiving, Business Week published its annual ranking of Top 30 graduate business schools for 2008. There were few surprises, at least among the top ten schools. While Harvard rose from fourth to second and Columbia from tenth to seventh, all of the schools that ranked in 2007´s top ten, rank in the top ten in 2008.
Reading these rankings made me wonder: how does a school get better, or worse, in the span of a single year? One answer might be found in the Business Week methodology, which includes a survey of newly minted MBAs, a poll of corporate recruiters and an evaluation of faculty research output. The 2008 MBA survey was combined with the two previous MBA surveys, as is the recruiter´s poll. So, 2008 results might improve, or depress, average responses that previously included 2005 results.
The results for students will vary more on the quality of career services than anything else; the effectiveness of a career center is tied to the job market. It would be no surprise to see Columbia or NYU receive lower marks for career services in 2009, not because the counselors didn´t work hard, but because of the state of the financial services industry. But in the 2008 survey, there was little to fear; all of the top ten schools scored at least an "A" for career services. But interestingly enough, none of the top 30 scored below a "B." I´d look at the high priced B-rated B-schools and cross them off my list, because I´m in this for a better job.
The MBA survey and the recruiter´s pool represent 90 percent of the ranking. The remaining ten percent deals with intellectual capital, meaning the quantity of published articles and book reviews of the faculty in scholarly journals, adjusted for faculty size. This means that ten percent of a consumer ranking of a business school has nothing to do with a faculty and staff providing customer service. And an academic ranking like this means little if those researchers do little teaching.
If you want to know more about Business Week´s methodology see www.BusinessWeek.com/bschools. But even if you don´t, ask yourself what´s important in choosing a graduate business program: price, quality of teaching, connections after graduation, etc. Then look at the recruiter rankings; they show an employer´s faith in the school to produce good employees. If I were Mormon, I would look no further than Brigham Young and if I were a Texan, I´d go to UT-Austin over any other school. But if you are neither Mormon nor Texan, then it´s hard to go wrong with any of the top ten schools, assuming you can get in.
My impression is that these rankings mean more to the schools ranked twenty to thirty than any others. If the next years´ survey causes the average MBA or recruiter responses to dip, then a school may drop off the list. This year three schools: Brigham Young, the University of Washington and Georgia Tech cracked the top thirty. I´d bet a buck that their deans are the happiest among their peer group from all of these schools, but also the most nervous. They´ll be pressed to take the great leap upward, even though the top ten are pretty much a lock. They´ll need the luck of the Irish to do it. Notre Dame leaped from 26th to 20th, the largest jump among last year´s top 30. Their business school is improving while their football program is regressing. That doesn´t seem like such a bad thing.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
Reading these rankings made me wonder: how does a school get better, or worse, in the span of a single year? One answer might be found in the Business Week methodology, which includes a survey of newly minted MBAs, a poll of corporate recruiters and an evaluation of faculty research output. The 2008 MBA survey was combined with the two previous MBA surveys, as is the recruiter´s poll. So, 2008 results might improve, or depress, average responses that previously included 2005 results.
The results for students will vary more on the quality of career services than anything else; the effectiveness of a career center is tied to the job market. It would be no surprise to see Columbia or NYU receive lower marks for career services in 2009, not because the counselors didn´t work hard, but because of the state of the financial services industry. But in the 2008 survey, there was little to fear; all of the top ten schools scored at least an "A" for career services. But interestingly enough, none of the top 30 scored below a "B." I´d look at the high priced B-rated B-schools and cross them off my list, because I´m in this for a better job.
The MBA survey and the recruiter´s pool represent 90 percent of the ranking. The remaining ten percent deals with intellectual capital, meaning the quantity of published articles and book reviews of the faculty in scholarly journals, adjusted for faculty size. This means that ten percent of a consumer ranking of a business school has nothing to do with a faculty and staff providing customer service. And an academic ranking like this means little if those researchers do little teaching.
If you want to know more about Business Week´s methodology see www.BusinessWeek.com/bschools. But even if you don´t, ask yourself what´s important in choosing a graduate business program: price, quality of teaching, connections after graduation, etc. Then look at the recruiter rankings; they show an employer´s faith in the school to produce good employees. If I were Mormon, I would look no further than Brigham Young and if I were a Texan, I´d go to UT-Austin over any other school. But if you are neither Mormon nor Texan, then it´s hard to go wrong with any of the top ten schools, assuming you can get in.
My impression is that these rankings mean more to the schools ranked twenty to thirty than any others. If the next years´ survey causes the average MBA or recruiter responses to dip, then a school may drop off the list. This year three schools: Brigham Young, the University of Washington and Georgia Tech cracked the top thirty. I´d bet a buck that their deans are the happiest among their peer group from all of these schools, but also the most nervous. They´ll be pressed to take the great leap upward, even though the top ten are pretty much a lock. They´ll need the luck of the Irish to do it. Notre Dame leaped from 26th to 20th, the largest jump among last year´s top 30. Their business school is improving while their football program is regressing. That doesn´t seem like such a bad thing.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.