MBAMPAHopeful wrote:
jz4analytics wrote:
MBAMPAHopeful wrote:
As a prospect for an MBA, who has Yale SOM high on his list for various reasons, I sort of find this a turn-off. But whatev. I suppose there's nothing wrong with thinking that. But then again I'm a person who has Booth and Kellog in his backyard ...
What exactly do you mean by
that and why is it a turnoff? Job placement options are an important part of bschool! And I agree that the US News ranking is slow to catch-up with reality, or can be biased in some ways.
I find insecurity in it. That's all.
It's fine to have pride in placement in particular sectors, especially if it's competitive to b-schools that are ranked higher or have a more established footing; the way it was done was just off-putting. I found it odd that HWS were singled out but all the other schools ahead of Yale SOM weren't, all with acknowledging the b-schools currently in Yale's cluster rank as "peers." It's peers, not "peers." I don't think HWS are looking at Yale with much fear or looking towards Yale's trajectory and saying, "Well good for them!" then turning to their own administration barking "If you let up one inch I'll fire your behind quicker than you can say 'We're #1.'"
I'm more than familiar with this talk when I was an undergraduate - students from fine, respectable institutions saying, "We're just as good as so-and-so." I sometimes agreed and sometimes didn't. I noted that it depended on what department as well. Then they talked about rankings. I then said to them, "Who are you going to displace? What school(s) are you going to outrank within five years and why?" And many institutions ahead of their given institution were really fine places to get an undergraduate education.
So (A) I learned to become skeptical of the hype and "momentum" talk and (B) I learned to put things in perspective. And I don't think the US News ranking "is slow to catch-up" if you meant that Yale SOM should be ranked higher (if so, who are they going to displace?) as in cracking T5 or being soundly placed in T10.
Us News is slow to adjust because of the ranking formula. It includes "peer assessments" which are subjective and tend to lag behind current improvements (or dips). SOM has a relatively new dean, new buildings, and an increasingly competitive applicant pool... all of which will help the program's reputation. Also, as pointed out by someone else, the salaryfactor in the rating is biased since it doesn't adjust for industry distribution (i.e. consultants from SOM have a median starting salary of $135K, the same as those from HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, etc... but fewer SOM students choose to go into consulting). Salary is important, but it's good to put context around it.
I don't see any reason why SOM couldn't pass Darden, CBS, Sloan, Haas, and/or Tuck in the future. That's not knocking any of those programs, but this is
Yale we're talking about - it has incredible resources to finance any program it wants, and the brand recognition to attract quality applicants. I personally don't think that you can "rank" schools too precisely as to say, "We're #2 and you're #6, hah!" because the programs do have different strengths, but I do think that the "tiers"are valuable and, from most objective views of what one would want from an MBA program, SOM should be consider on par with any school.