what is your opinion on Cornell Brand?

First, not all ivies are created equal. On the undergrad level the tiers go along the lines of 1. H/Y/P 2. Col/Penn/Dartmouth 3. Brown/Cornell. There are other top schools that compete with the ivies and are no worse than them - MIT/S are on the level of H/Y/P, Chicago/Duke are on the level of Col/Dartmouth and so on. So I wouldn't say that Cornell would be considered on the level of Harvard just because both are ivies - there are other non-ivy schools that have a better reputation than Cornell. As the previous poster mentioned, school reputation takes long to build and other top schools are not standing still, so the competition among the top 15 is fierce. I think Cornell is where it ought to be right now - it's a respectable top 15 school, which coincides with its undergrad ranking. As for Yale, the problem there is that its program is too young and has been focused on non-profit. Plus, Yale's class is very small - they keep it small in order to maintain higher selectivity and that's a way to keep their position in the rankings. However, this class size makes for a small alumni network, which pales in comparison to the ones of Booth, HBS, Wharton etc. People see that as a problem. There is a similar problem with Haas and Tuck, but these programs have managed to create a tight-knit feeling among their student bodies in order for loyalty to compensate for their smaller size. It takes a lot of work, marketing efforts and time. Other ivy MBAs are much older and better established - think HBS/W/Tuck. But the ivy status has little to do with MBA reputation - look at MIT and Chicago. Cornell and Yale are both very respectable programs and the general perception has put them where their reputation curently is - top 10-15, so the general public has already 'priced in' their ivy status in their ranking. I don't think that there is much space to move up or down among the top 15 as the competition is very stiff, so both schools will probably stay where they are. With each year the app numbers are up and the influx of top applicants will cause the distinctions between the ultra elite and elite group to be blurred. What will rather happen is that we'll see a gradual transition from M7 to M10 and then M15.