BusinessWeek B School Ranking 2008

I am very interested to see how the "Finance Houses" will perform with the "this Financial market"...

I thought the rankings came out just last year and b-week releases them every other year. So the next one should be late 08/early 09.

No the last actually ranking was in 2006. BW runs on even years. USnews is every year.

Yep-my bad. It was last released Oct '06. So I guess later this year.

Should be interesting to see how it plays out. If GSB holds #1 or someone else jumps to the top. BW is more for bragging rights and help increase apps somewhat...no one, not even rhyme, would argue GSB is higher in true ranking than HSW.

And it's going to be the BW ranking for the class of 2010

too bad we will have to make our decisions beforehand.

Anyone who picks a school solely on ranking is probably going to be disappointed. They fluctuate enough that school X could be #1 this year and #3 when you graduate. Recruiters dont pay attention to rankings really. I think the more telling information from BW is the grades that they have for schools for recruiters and students opinions on their table. You can actually see how schools stack up against each other with recruiter perception and students feel for the school. GSB = #1 with students. Kellogg = #1 with recruiters.

https://bwnt.businessweek.com/bschools/06/mba_main.asp

Duke is the only school that has A+ grades across the board...interesting...

I knew someone would come up with that argument. Of course, I dont base my decision solely on rankings, but it could still tip me off in one direction in case I have a choice of more than one school.

I think rankings do help to some extent. I think it tends to be a cycle- better rankings will draw better applicants who otherwise might not have applied and some of those guys might actually join. Case in point is GSB-a few years back, I am not sure if many people would have thought about dumping W for GSB but now it does seem some admits do think about it. With better student body, you will find better recruitment and then the ranking will be justified and so the cycle continues. I believe rankings definitely matter in the E/TE level much more than the UE.

There's always going to be debate as to what the proper measure of an MBA program is and, in most cases, it varies depending on the interests, personality, and goals of the applicant. That being said, the overwhelming consensus is that Harvard and Stanford are the top two programs. How much validity does a ranking system have if it places them at 14th/19th (WSJ) or even 4th/6th (BW)? I understand that they're trying to come up with a scientific formula for ranking schools, but if the result is that far off from "reality" it casts doubt upon the credibility of the entire system. It seems to me that applicants are much better off using non-quantitative measures to assess the fit/value of schools.

I would say it is similar to football league tables. For Example the English League.
e.g Manchester United would be the equivalent of an Elite school - (1945–1969) they were the best, however by the mid 70's they slumped and even got relegated. By the mid 80's they were resurgent, although not ultra-elite, they were elite again. However, come the 90's the surged back to become an ultra-elite.

Historically speaking, a lot of the top clubs have been elite for a long term with some short term dips. The reputation of the club ensures it always attracts top players. However sometimes the management and players underperform and brings it down in the rankings.

Sometimes you get an established team trying to push its way into the ultra-elite and managing it (Chelsea), sometimes they fall away (Leeds Utd)

Business schools sound much the same in reality, you will get ups ad downs, however in the long run, the high reputation schools will remain near the top due to its reputation.

You could have used the 1990+ Blackburn for this example. Why Leeds? Whyyyy? Whyyyyyyyyy?

What's that make Arsenal, who, to my knowledge, have never been relegated?

There's only one club in London

I have the October 2006 version of BW's rankings. Funny how when I looked at it then, I had no clue what it meant, wasn't even thinking about b-school, and just thought of it as a curiosity.

Looking forward to seeing the 2008 version though, when we're all in school.

As for ranking movements, it'll take a decade or more for a school to move clusters, if at all. I know GSB was probably outside of the UEs back in the early 90s, and they are now solidly in the UEs. UCLA used to be consistently ahead of Haas in rankings, even in the top 10 most of the time (90's), and now it's always behind, even though both are still Elites.

I wonder what will happen in 10 years.

Strategery, I think you mean Everton - who have enjoyed the maximum number of years in the top flight in the English league (or more than any other team in any other top league for that matter).