DARN.. WHICH WEBSITE RANKING is CREDIBLE

Are you connected to that site...every single post you have made has been a link to them.

Go by US-News...its the most accurate in terms with how programs are actually viewed.

US News looks pretty accurate.

Any ranking that doesn't have Harvard, Stanfurd, and Wharton as the top 3 is useless (not necessarily in that order).

RVD.

@RVD: That's absurd. What's the point of the ranking then? I happen to agree that those 3 are top 10 schools, but you cannot make a blanket statement like that because it invalidates the very reason for a ranking.

@ankitraheja: Most people recognize US News & World Report and BusinessWeek as the two most reliable rankings. However, it truly depends on what you're looking for. Those two do not really account for international programs as does the Financial Times ranking, and they weigh less heavily the feedback of recruiters, which is the basis for the (often controversial) WSJ ranking.

David Aktary
Editor
https://www.bschoolinsight.com

Therein lies the problem with rankings. Rankings of what? If you want to rank which schools have the best parties, it's going to be much different from the rankings of the schools with the best finance program or schools with the best marketing program or schools with the best international program, etc.

Which publication has the best rankings? There's really no answer to that question unless you ask "rankings of what aspect?"

Even overall rankings are misleading. Overall of what? Everything? Some people only care about reputation and brand while other care about faculty/student ratios. Some students want the best quality education for the best price while others don't care about money, they want the most prestige.

With all that said...most people who actually look at rankings are looking for prestige. They want to say "I go to the #1 ranked school" or "I got into the #4 ranked school" or "I go to a top 10 school", etc.

The reality of the situation is that based on prestige, brand, reputation, etc...the top 3 have consistently been H/S/W. So when you have a ranking that puts Chicago as #1 (like business week), the rankings are meaningless (well, even more meaningless than rankings normally are). Businessweek says michigan (Ross) is #5 and Stanfurd is #6. What does that mean? Does it mean that Ross is a better (whatever that means) school than Stanfurd? Speaking in general terms, if a students gets into both, should he/she generally go to Ross over Stanfurd?

The reason why I say that H/S/W should be in the top 3 is because they are still considered the top 3 schools in terms of prestige. Of course as years go by another school may overtake the top 3 but this year, they are still the top 3. Rankings are useless anyway but any ranking that says otherwise is even more useless.

RVD.

Check this out..



Forbes is always a trusted source.

They can't be serious....

RVD

I somehow agree that HSW should be at the TOP. However, rankings reflect changes also, if you see for instance FT, you will see that European schools are gaining ground in the business education industry. As a parallel, GM and Ford are forever in the Car industry and their brands are (supposedly) very well known, but it doesn't mean neither that they are good companies nor that they produce the best cars at the present moment. I know it's a totally different history with the MBA industry, but hey, things change after this financial crisis way may see also Asian schools becoming more and more important in a global context.

Rankings are different because of different methodologies, so you should know the methodology before taking judgment.

And it doesn't matter what ranking you're looking at all top schools are fine, I like gmatclub's cluster division the most, though. And really, get to know the schools culture, they are REALLY different.

It may be a stupid question. But how does one actually know a school's culture ? From alums ?

Asking people here, talking to alumni, reading as much as you can from the schools you're interested at, and most important - and of course if you can - visiting the schools, watching a couple of classes, etc.

There are schools that are similar in a couple of aspects, whilst there are schools very different. I can talk about the GSB where I'm right now, MIT because I did a very deep research, a little bit about Columbia and Stanford GSB, but I'd honestly say that only at the Chicago GSB I can really talk, that's where I am.

Thanks kwam that really helps [+1]

Every ranking is credible, they just consider different criteria.

The inherent problem for US news and BusinessWeek rankings is that if you are not interested in the USA schools, then they are not very useful (Business week does not include many International schools). Therefore they are inherently targetted towards the USA MBA market.
Likewise, people who have are unaware of MBA education outside of the USA, usually do not know about the changing trends outside the USA.

RVD, In terms of rankings being useless, I beg to differ. They have a huge influence on where people apply to do their MBAs. Outside of the USA, a lot of people use the FT or EIU rankings to determine which schools to apply to. This increase the student quality at the higher ranked schools, which in turn will attract higher tier companies down the line. So there is a factor of importance. This is not to say H/S/W is not at the top, but that recruiting companies are starting to spread their wings in seacrh of diversity of schools they reach out to when they recruit. This means that for the H/S/W (in the future), they will be competing against other schools who will have increasinglt competitive students in the MBA job market.

A classmate has a brother who is attending HBS, visited our school recently and sat in on a few classes said he didn't really see much difference in student quality. Likewise for the exchange-in students (from US schools) I see who come to my school, I don't really see much difference in quality either, the key difference I see, is outspokeness because of cultural differences.

Most definitely US News is the most accurate. Business Week is one of the worst, but still most popular for some reason...

Couldn't agree more. If there is one thing that I've learned in this entire search process, it's that these three schools have differentiated themselves from the rest of the pack. No offense RVD, but H/S especially.