***OFFICIAL 2009 US NEWS MBA RANKINGS***

So is Stern, among top ten in 6 out of 11 categories (Finance, International, Information Systems, Accounting, Non-Profit and Part-time). I wonder what made it drop in rankings overall behind Yale....??

I feel like USNews has weighed heavily on the GMAT.....Yale made an 18 point jump in the GMAT but has not really done much with employment or anything.....

In Peter Bernstein's Capital Ideas (mostly a story about how portfolio theory was developed), lots of the academics featured in the story are from MIT (with lots from Chicago as well). I don't know if those academics are still there, but it seems like back in the day it was one of the hot spots for finance.

I think it's still got one of the most highly regarded economics departments in the country, along with Harvard, Chicago and Princeton.

Exactly!
https://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... s/rankings

People have the impression that MIT is about tech, I applied there because I believe it is a Top Finance school. Actually, at the bank I work for there are many MIT guys.

MIT Sloan has some of top leaders in finance.

Andrew Lo - Behavioral Financial Economics https://web.mit.edu/alo/www/
John Cox - Inventor of the binomial pricing model https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail. ... &co_list=F
Paul Asquith - amazing intro to corporate finance https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail. ... &co_list=F

The new finance track provides an exceptional opportunity to focus your education in this area. Andrew Lo is extremely dedicated to this program and is not only expanding theory based classes but using his clout to bring in some outstanding practitioners to teach classes, so you get theory and application as it is used in the real world.

The Business School Rankings Methodology
By Robert Morse , Sam Flanigan
Posted April 15, 2010

All 433 master's programs in business accredited by AACSB International were surveyed in fall 2009 and early 2010 (378 responded, of which 129 provided the data needed to calculate rankings based on a weighted average of the indicators described below). All 433 schools appear in the online directory.
Click here to find out more!

[See our Best Business Schools rankings.]

Quality Assessment (weighted by .40)

Peer Assessment Score (.25) In the fall of 2009, business school deans and directors of accredited master's programs in business were asked to rate programs on a scale from "marginal" (1) to "outstanding" (5). Those individuals who did not know enough about a school to evaluate it fairly were asked to mark "don't know." A school's score is the average of all the respondents who rated it. Responses of "don't know" counted neither for nor against a school. About 44 percent of those surveyed responded.

Recruiter Assessment Score (.15) In the fall of 2009, corporate recruiters and company contacts from M.B.A. programs previously ranked by U.S. News were asked to rate all full-time programs on a scale from "marginal" (1) to "outstanding" (5). Those individuals who did not know enough about a school to evaluate it fairly were asked to mark "don't know." A school's score is the average of all the respondents who rated it. Responses of "don't know" counted neither for nor against a school. About 28 percent of those surveyed responded. For the purpose of calculating this year's rankings, the two most recent years' recruiters' survey results were averaged and are weighed by .15.

Placement Success (weighted by .35)

Mean Starting Salary and Bonus (.14) The average starting salary and bonus of 2009 graduates of a full-time master's program in business. Salary figures are based on the number of graduates who reported data. The mean signing bonus is weighted by the proportion of those graduates who reported a bonus, because not everyone who reported a base salary figure reported a signing bonus.

Employment Rates for Full-time Master's Program in Business Graduates The employment rate for 2009 graduates of a full-time master's program in business. Those not seeking jobs or for whom no job-seeking information is available are excluded. If the proportions of graduates for whom no job-seeking information is available and who are not seeking jobs are high, then the information is not used in calculating the rankings. Employment rates at graduation (.07) and three months after graduation (.14) are used in the ranking model.

Student Selectivity (weighted by .25)

Mean GMAT Scores (.1625) The average Graduate Management Admission Test score of students entering the full-time program in fall 2009. Scores on the test range from 200 to 800.

Mean Undergraduate GPA (.075) The average undergraduate grade-point average of those students entering the full-time program in fall 2009.

Acceptance Rate (.0125) The percent of applicants to the full-time program in fall 2009 who were accepted.

Overall Rank: Data were standardized about their means, and standardized scores were weighted, totaled, and rescaled so that the top school received 100; others received their percentage of the top score. In order to be ranked, a full-time M.B.A. program had to have 20 or more graduates who were seeking employment in 2009. For a school to have its employment data considered in the ranking model, at least 50 percent of its 2009 full-time M.B.A. graduates needed to be seeking work.

Specialty Rankings: These rankings, including executive M.B.A., are based solely on ratings by business school deans and directors of accredited master's programs from the list of schools surveyed. They were asked to nominate up to 10 programs for excellence in each of the areas listed. The schools receiving the most votes in each specialty appear here.

Am I missing something? Why does the web and a scanned copy of the rankings I received look different than what has been posted here?

I looked at the rankings, and a lot of school's employment rate are in the 60%'s at the time of graduation.

Hint: 99% of the posts in this thread are from 2009....

Good call. Minus 10 for me on Observation skills.

Err, I think the rankings posted in this thread are incorrect. On the official US News website, the rankings are:

https://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... s/rankings

1 Harvard University Boston, MA
1 Stanford University Stanford, CA
3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) Cambridge, MA
4 Northwestern University (Kellogg) Evanston, IL
5 University of Chicago (Booth) Chicago, IL
5 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) Philadelphia, PA
7 Dartmouth College (Tuck) Hanover, NH
7 University of California--Berkeley (Haas) Berkeley, CA
9 Columbia University New York, NY
9 New York University (Stern) New York, NY
11 Yale University New Haven, CT
12 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor (Ross) Ann Arbor, MI
13 University of Virginia (Darden) Charlottesville, VA
14 Duke University (Fuqua) Durham, NC
15 University of California--Los Angeles (Anderson) Los Angeles, CA
16 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) Pittsburgh, PA
16 University of Texas--Austin (McCombs) Austin, TX
18 Cornell University (Johnson) Ithaca, NY
19 Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) St. Louis, MO
20 University of Southern California (Marshall) Los Angeles, CA
21 Ohio State University (Fisher) Columbus, OH
21 University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) Chapel Hill, NC
23 Indiana University--Bloomington (Kelley) Bloomington, IN
24 Georgetown University (McDonough) Washington, DC
24 University of Minnesota--Twin Cities (Carlson) Minneapolis, MN

EDIT: Oops, just saw the post above mine. Major fail on my part.

Woh, Wharton fell...

MIT #3 now, congrats!

Haas and Tuck still tied at #7, not bad.

Graduation employment rate at 60-70% sounds about right across all schools last year.

Looks reasonable. Not really any shockers in the top 10. Yeah fulltime hiring last year was really tough. We were told many times that was our hidden competition, grads from the past 3 years who were laid off and grads from last year still looking. I actually had some 09 grads at 2nd round interviews this year, and then off campus stuff came across a bunch of 07-08 alums from schools looking. I was shocked at the final round of interviews for the position I accepted, I was the only person still in school...everyone else graduated at least a few years ago, including a guy from 2003.

Hi Kryzak, Thank you for all of your valuable contributions to these forums. I discovered Gmatclub a while ago, wish I had found it sooner, but have valued your input and guidance as I'm sure many others have.

I wanted to get your opinon on the US News&Report Speciality rankings. Do you think they are worth taking into consideration when choosing programs. I believe both MIT and Wharton are excellent programs. It is interesting to the rankings shift, and after some analysis of the ranking methodology it seems that Wharton got nailed on employment and therefore also starting salary (less bankers, lower average $). That being said, the reason I wanted to bring up the speciality rankings is because it seems that this should obviously be an important factor in the overall ranking process. I compiled the following list out of personal interest of the movements in speciality rankings between MIT and Wharton as they are two programs I am deciding between and they essentially swapped positions this year. (I realize that personal goals and fit with the program are the most important factor regardless of any ranking and will ultimately make my decision based on that)

USNR Specialty rankings 2009:

Wharton: #2Accounting, #9Information systems, #5Management, #7Nonprofit, Tied#3Production/Operations, Tied#3Entrepreneurship, #1Finance, #3International, #2Marketing, #8Supply Chain/Logistics

MIT Sloan: #1Information systems, #10Management, #1Production/Operations, #5Entrepreneurship, #4Finance, #1Supply Chain/Logistics


USNR Specialty rankings 2010: Blue = +, Red = (-), Black = “=”

Wharton: #2Accounting, #7Information systems, #4Management, #8Nonprofit, #3Production/Operations, #5Entrepreneurship, #1Finance, #2International, #2Marketing, #4Supply Chain/Logistics

MIT Sloan: #1Information systems, #N/AManagement, #1Production/Operations, #3Entrepreneurship, #6Finance, #1Supply Chain/Logistics

Movement Summary:

Wharton: net +6
+2Info systems, +1Management, (-1)Nonprofit, +1Production/Operations,
(-2)Entrepreneurship, +1International, +4Supply Chain


MIT Sloan: net (–1)
(-1)Management, +2Entrepreneurship, (-2)Finance

Its just interesting because according to the speciality rankings Wharton improved on its core competencies and expertise, but still fell (or was overtaken) by many other schools. It shows the relative weight of the other factors in the rankings. That being said, getting a job is a primary objective of b-school, and needs to be seriously considered in the rankings.

I met a '09 Kellogg grad last year in Taiwan at the information session who was hired by Bain, but then received a 3-6 paid deferal period where she would be paid to learn a foreign language to put off immediate employment. This would still count as employed right?

Hi Riverripper,

Thanks for sharing, that is very interesting. Good luck in all of your job searching endevours and thanks for all of your valuable contributions to the forum. Especially starting your forum on Energy. Have a good day.

Yeah, like river said, I've bumped into some grads from last year still looking.

curiousapplicant, I think you're looking into the rankings too much. MIT and Wharton are both top schools and other than some of the major focus (finance vs info systems/operations), they're pretty much equally good. I wouldn't say any ranking is particularly better than another, especially since each ranking system uses a different method. I've been saying many times that once you're IN school, the rankings don't seem as important anymore. It's really about how you approach the job search and how you utilize your alums and contacts to switch to the career you want.

Granted, some schools have certain companies you want to work for that recruit on campus, and other schools don't. That is important to find out before choosing schools. Otherwise, no need to go into that much detail with the rankings, and just know that all the schools mentioned in the top 10-15-20 are great schools that you should consider when applying.

Oh yeah, and cultural fit is actually more important, in my humble opinion.