osbornecox wrote:
eskimoroll wrote:
I think this will probably end up being a question of who's #10. I think Haas and Tuck are fairly well planted in the top 10 and that would leave #10 to be battled out between NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, and Yale SOM. I picked NYU for the #10 spot.
Eskimoroll is correct: this really is a poll about which school rounds out the Top 10.
Notice the raw scores in the US News Ranking: there is a significant drop off after number 9. Reproduced below:
1. Stanford 100
2. Harvard 98
3. MIT 93
3. Wharton 93
5. Kellogg 92
5. Booth 91
7. Tuck 88
7. Berkeley Haas 88
9. Columbia 87
10. NYU Stern 81
10. Yale SOM 81
Also note that last year, Columbia and Stern were tied at 9th (the rest being in roughly the same order, with a few ties or tiebreakers).
As you can see, based on US News, the real question here is "who rounds out the Top 10"?
I also note that there are some recent threads on BusinessWeek where Columbia's position is discussed: is it a peer of Kellogg, Sloan, Wharton and Booth, or is it in the same tier as Tuck and Haas?
A comparison between P&Q and USN shows that this remains unclarified: P&Q has Tuck and Columbia switching places at 5th and 6th, USN has Columbia below Tuck and Haas for several years running now, and BWeek has Haas and Columbia fairly close (lower Top 10), with Tuck behind.
The actual ordering of the top 10 is up for some debate, but most agree on the composition of the Top 9. Who's 10th?
I agree partly and disagree partly with eskimoroll and osbornecox. The top 9 for me too is kind of set, although outside of the M7 in terms of reputation, Ross, Haas, Tuck, Duke, NYU, Yale and Darden are probably very close, not much to choose between and would probably come down to your own fit and goals. UCLA and Cornell definitely maybe a tier below.
In any case, my top 10 is as follows and my# 10 is Duke. To me Ross and Darden come close, but NYU does not. Its a simple average of Business Week 2010 Ranking, USNews 2011 Ranking and Poets and Quants 2010 Rankings. And its sorted by average - lowest to highest.
BW USNews P&Q Average
HBS 2 1 1 1.333333333
Stanford 5 1 2 2.666666667
Chicago 1 5 3 3
Wharton 3 5 4 4
Kellogg 4 4 7 5
MIT 10 3 8 7
Columbia 9 9 5 7.666666667
Haas 8 7 9 8
Tuck 14 7 6 9
Duke 6 12 10 9.333333333
Ross 7 14 13 11.33333333
Darden 11 13 11 11.66666667
NYU 18 9 12 13
Yale 21 11 14 15.33333333
Cornell 13 18 15 15.33333333
UCLA 17 15 17 16.33333333
For #10, it's a tight race between Ross, Fuqua, Stern, and Darden WITHIN the US.
Stern obviously stands out when it comes to INTERNATIONAL brand recognition though. To be fair, Haas, Stern, Fuqua, Ross, Darden are all solid MBA programs. Haas and Stern both just have an unfair advantage situated in SF and NYC - two of the most desirable US cities for internationals. As an international (in Asia at least), you rarely have to explain going for an MBA at Berkeley/NYU. But when it comes to Michigan/Ross, Virginia/Darden there is much much more explanation needed.
I'd give Stern #10 just because of that and I agree that Haas and Tuck are both around the 8-9th places.