There are many different rankings of MBA programs, and they can give quite different results. I was curious what actually goes into these rankings and why they are so different. Here are a few -
1) US NEWS:Peer Assessment = 25%
Recruiter Assessment = 15%
Mean salary & bonus = 14%
Employment rates = 21%
Mean GMAT/GRE = 16.25%
Undergrad GPA = 7.5%
Acceptance rate = 1.25%
2) THE ECONOMIST:Recruiter diversity = 8.75%
Employment rate = 8.75%
Job through career services = 8.75%
Student assessment of career services = 8.75%
Faculty quality = 8.75%
Student quality = 8.75% (mean GMAT and Prior WE)
Student diversity = 8.75%
Student evaluation of educational experience = 8.75%
Salary increase = 20%
Networking/Alumni quality = 10%
3) BLOOMBERG BUSINESS:Student satisfaction = 45%
Employer satisfaction = 45%
Faculty quality = 10%
Most people consider US News to be the gold standard, but I'm a little worried that is weighs "peer assessment" so heavily (25%!), without ever surveying alumni. Isn't peer assessment, to put it bluntly, pure bullshit? Not that there aren't problems with other rankings (it's difficult to place why class diversity should count so much for The Economist's list), but I wonder whether US News is more biased than we think. Booth, Tuck, Haas, and Darden consistently rank at the top of The Economist, whereas Stanford and Wharton get ranked down. Doesn't this tell us that, perhaps, students at Booth, Tuck, Haas, and Darden are getting a better experience? Where does that matter-of-fact prestige come in for the programs that always come at the top of US News?
Top ten according to each ranking -
1) US NEWS: Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, Booth, Sloan, Kellogg, Haas, Columbia, Tuck, Darden
2) THE ECONOMIST: Booth, Tuck, Haas, Darden, Harvard, Stern, Stanford, Columbia, Sloan, Wharton
3) BLOOMBERG BUSINESS: Fuqua, Wharton, Booth, Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Kellogg, Harvard, Ross
- https://www.usnews.com/education/best-gr ... ethodology
- https://www.economist.com/whichmba/methodology-2014
- https://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/20 ... ng-schools