Interesting study about the strength of academic research
There is a interesting paper that talks about the different academic research strengths at the different schools. This maybe more important for say Ph.D. students. However, it gives you an idea of what resources are being put into different areas. Some schools really surprise you.
https://www.kelley.indiana.edu/ardennis/rankings/
However, for us future MBAs -- it is more effective to look at how MBA graduates are seeing in the career placement market. A research school could be cutting edge, but not teaching and preparing it's students to deal with the job search. This is another reason where BW rankings leads by having a column stating what grades are given for teaching:
2004 BW
There are 13 schools that got an A in teaching.
2002 BW
There were 16 schools that got an A in curriculum (would that be equiv to teaching)
In my opinion, I would concentrate on teaching -- although U.S. News has a "peer" assessment score???? who knows what that measures. It's extremely important though... Also look at perceived student quality in "recruiter assesment score"... I guess graduate quality and compare that to WSJ...
Wow so many rankings...
YOU REALLY HAVE TO PICK AND CHOOSE WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU!