Dear all,
I have been researching on the history and rise of Oxbridge schools(typically oxford). It truly has seen a meteroic rise in rankings and prestige and has truly leveraged the brand Oxford. Typically. In FT rankings it has risen from mid 30`s to a consistent player in top 20.(Lets wait for 2009 rankings.). In terms of ROI, it already has been ranked the best globally. On stats, it is at par with the best in the world(Average Gmat 690, starting salaries, average work ex 6 years, very high diversity) etc. The networking oppurtunities are infinite courtesy the collegiate system and hence rectifies the fact that it is a young school. I don`t think that any other school(other than ISB from india , and to some extent Judge has seen such a quick rise.)
There was a fear that Oxford might go the Yale way(World class university but average to decent B school). No offences I am talking only in relative terms.
The new building, infra etc has also come up very quickly and is world class. It already has occupied the position of top school in Europe for non-profits/social entrepreneurship.(a courtesy Jeff skoll , skoll centre and skoll social forum).
On searching BW forums around 2002 to 2004. I found that even at that time there was high expectation from Said(primarily bcoz of brand Oxford). However applicants(typically US) didnot view it at par with other elite Us schools(Haas, Duke, darden, Cornel, UCLA, yale, Tuck, Michigan etc.). Although it was expected to compete with the ultra elite(H/S/W chicago, MIT) in 5/10 years of time.
Now that we are in 2009, and 5 years have lasped, I wanted to ascetain the opinion of current applicants(Both in US as well as Europe and Asia). can we now consider it at par with the elite US B schools(definately not ultra elite)? although I understand the difficulty of comparing 1 year schools with 2 year schools. But then in general Insead and LBSalso IMD( are also considered at par with ultra elite.
In My opinion. It has broken into the elite category. and can be comfortably considered at par with them.Pls share your view opinion on the same.
Clarification: I am no ranking whore