77 wrote:
Who here is going to the admitted students weekend April 1-2? Is anyone here worried that Olin's ranking may start to slip? I know it's ranked 20th in USNews, but I heard that USNews isn't an accurate b-school ranking.
First, I wouldn't put that much stock into any ranking. It is all very fluid, and if one pick a school because they are #21 in USNews vs. a #25 in USNews, they are pretty moronic, IMHO. Once you get down to the 18-30 range in USNews, it really comes down to things like what do you want to do, where do you want to work post-MBA, etc., and how much the MBA will cost you financially. That being said, IMHO USNews is pretty accurate as far as rankings of US schools go. You can look at some other rankings and you can see examples of schools that shouldn't be ranked anywhere near where they are, which hit at the credibility of the rankings. For instance, one has SMU in top 20. Now, i'm not knocking SMU. It is a good school and not bad if you want to stay in Texas, but to put it in the top 20 is laughable at best. Other rankings tend to do a good job at ranking non-US programs, but then just doesn't seem to make any sense in the US rankings. Financial Times is like that. Their Euro rankings are pretty good, but US is sort of a joke.
Now, as for Olin, keep in mind that all of Wash U graduate programs rank well. Heck, the b school is one of the lowest ranking programs coming in at #20. Might Olin be #24, or #19 or whatever next year? Sure. Will it matter to you? Nope. It isn't going anywhere.