Re: Rankings US News or Business Week?
[#permalink]
04 Feb 2008, 18:55
I think US News is generally a better indicator of what people will decide when faced with the choice between two (or more) schools). The question is do the preferences drive the rankings or do the rankings drive the perceptions. In the end, it doesn't really matter.
When you look at the points of inflection in the two different rankings, the US News rankings seem to pass the smell test better. For example, Haas and Tuck have moved ahead of Columbia in the US News rankings. I believe that Columbia is the better school, but I can certainly understand how a lot of people might prefer Haas or Tuck. Looking at the top 15 or so, I can imagine a logical explanation for each.
Some of the Businessweek rankings just don't pass the smell test. Would any relevant portion of the stakeholders out there really argue that Chicago and Kellogg should be ahead of Harvard? I don't buy it. How about Ross (and those above) ahead of Stanford. Smells fishy. What percentage of the people at Stanford would trade their seat for a spot at Ross. I'm guessing, outside of some people with highly individualized personal concerns, about 0%. Vice versa? About 100%.
However, notwithstanding everything above, I think that Hjort's cluster system makes the most sense. Once you start looking at schools within the same cluster, other concerns (location, personal, teaching style, money, etc.) are probably the deciding factors for most people.