School Name Brand Recognition Misconception

Question

In some rankings, Stern is higher ranked than some schools that have better name recognition. For instance Yale and Tuck are sometimes ranked below Stern. For people not going into "elite" jobs like PE or consulting or whatever, do you think a Yale or Dartmouth on your diploma would look better? I would venture to say that if I were applying for a corporate finance job in California, some people might be more impressed if my resume had an MBA from Vanderbilt than they would if they saw an MBA from NYU. What do you guys think, are there instances where a school's undergraduate reputation is used as a proxy for the b-school's reputation because people are not familiar with business school reputations?

pelihu · Answer

Vanderbilt has no name recognition in California. NYU is better known.

I do agree that in certain cases, a school's undergraduate reputation might influence perception of the MBA degree, but I don't believe that people that hire MBAs - especially those that hire MBAs regularly - will have any confusion.

I read a funny quote just recently. If you want to impress your cabbie, then tell them you have an MBA from Yale. On the other hand, an MBA recruiter will not be confused as easily.

Just my personal opinion, but Tuck, along with Haas and Michigan are at the top of the heap for elite schools. I draw this conclusion based on selectivity (Haas and Tuck are more selective than several ultra-elites, while Michigan's yield exceeds Kellogg's) and ranking reputation (Tuck & Michigan are in the top 5 of several rankings).

Again, just my personal opinion, but I think that Yale, Darden & Cornell are at the lower end of the elite schools. This is based on selectivity (Darden & Cornell are clearly less selective than other elites, while Yale must severely limit its class size to maintain selectivity) and ranking reputation (all three are ranked outside the top 15 by several rankings).

johnnyx9 · Answer

I guess I should have said "the South" instead of California. For some reason I thought Vanderbilt had a good national name.

I live in Boston and I think NYU has a pretty "blah" reputation, in other words people would lump it in with schools like Ohio State and Boston University, a good school for sure, but not perceived as a top school. 

But I guess it makes sense that any company that regularly hires MBA's would know which schools are more prestigious than others.

dukes · Answer

Some would argue that Tuck is really more of an "ultra-elite" school. In certain circles, Tuckies enjoy the same (or even better) prestige as GSB, Kellogg, Columbia, and MIT grads. For example, Tuck has fantastic representation in certain boutique firms.

fluffydot · Answer

I think rankings are meant to be a generalization and not purely a reflection of how well the brand is recognized.

On top of that, brand recognition is always affected by location and demographics. So you can argue all day about which school has a better brand name in what area. And on top of that top, each firm will favor different schools based on their own recruiting experiences and previous relationships.

You really have to look at the firms that YOU want to work for and see what schools they like to hire from. Or look at each school you are considering and see what firms they have strong relationships with.

imjimmy · Answer

I find that hard to believe. Ohio state and BU are not even close to NYU; they are like 2-3 tiers below NYU.

johnnyx9 · Answer

Two tiers? It's about 20 spots higher in the rankings, but I don't want to get in a pointless "rankings" argument, what I'm saying is that NYU is a great school but people in the Northeast don't necessarily have that perception.

People think of it as the "other" school in New York (shadowed by Columbia, plus you have great liberal arts schools there too). Kind of like the way Tufts and BC are those "other" schools in Boston. So even though NYU is a highly ranked school and a very good school, it is not perceived that way.

aaudetat · Answer

I am always around people who don't know anything about business schools. I get the biggest "ooh, aah" when I tell people we're I'm applying. Yale leaves the biggest impression, because everyone knows Yale is super-fancy. 

Of course, my mother wants me to end up at Duke, because she likes the basketball so much. She didn't like Stanford because she's just not that into the Pac-10. Lord, if it were just that easy.

johnnyx9 · Answer

That's funny. My grandmother is convinced that a certain tiny little school in Texas is the best school in the world because some high school crush of hers went there to play football and she's always been like, "You know, you should really look at  . John Douglas went there and he could throw a football clear over the bleachers, a school for real fine young men."

imjimmy · Answer

Actually NYU could be in the Elite category. But Ohio State and BU are in the Near Elite Frontier Category. 
I think that Ohio State and BU are regional schools. Whereas NYU is nationally known. From the point of view of international students it would be much safer to go to a nationally known school than a regional school. There won't be many companies in BU and Ohio state that would be willing to sponsor internationals for their H1-B.

johnnyx9 · Answer

IMJIMMY - We're not disagreeing that NYU is ranked higher than BU and OSU.

But BU is not a "regional school." It's one of the best known school's outside of the US, I have family in Greece and Spain and Ireland and when my brother went to BU all of my cousins were like, "Oh wow, BU." It's all about the research that comes out of there, pick up Time magazine or Newsweek or the Wall Street Journal and there's bound to be an article that quotes some research from BU.

Also the liberal arts there have some great professors like Elie Wiesel (famous holocaust survivor, author), Robert Pinsky (US poet laureate), Saul Bellow (famous author), and on and on, so that's another reason people outside the region have such a high regard for the school (while in the region people are just like, "That's that school across the river from Harvard and MIT right?"

rhyme · Answer

Generally speaking no. People who recruit MBAs, will know which ones are good, and often specifically target schools. Large firms will have HR areas that will also be familiar with top schools - even if you apply rather than go through regular recruiting.

lhmcjen · Answer

Dude,

Interantional rep of Bu...I have no idea. But I can tell you that to those of us from out West it is just another school, regardless of how close it is to harvard. Interesting views that your family has though.

johnnyx9 · Answer

lhmcjen,
Yeah, exactly my point. What I was getting at is that it has a really good international reputation despite not being well regarded here. 

Anyways, glad you liked my family's views.

dabots · Answer

i seriously think this is the funniest paragraph ive read on this board

aaudetat · Answer

Yep, I agree! Johnny, you are one funny boy! I read your post aloud to my sweetie, using my best granny voice, and he chuckled. This is a major response from him, considering how much of a nerd he thinks I am for hanging out on this board so much.

johnnyx9 · Answer

Yeah people definitely think it's dorky to be hanging out on forums. Once in a while when someone asks me about how my applications are going I'll say something like, "Well I'm still waiting to hear back from most of the schools, but from what I hear from these people that I talk to on...uh....these...online forums...it seems like there's a big surge in applications this year." 

If I didn't find this forum though there are a bunch of things about this whole process that I wouldn't have known, I think people who don't find gmatclub are at a disadvantage.

antapple · Answer

[ 

I'm sure all the gmatclub administrators paid you to write such a politically correct phrase...
lol

gmatclb · Answer

Dorky? This is the first time I've heard about this.

johnnyx9 · Answer

Yeah I guess that would make a good testimonial, but unfortunately I wasn't paid.

I have a friend who is applying to b-school who I keep telling to check this site out and I don't know if he's just too lazy or what, but I mean the guy is clueless to the whole process. All he knows is what his application instructions say. If he spent any time on this forum asking opinions and advice he might have known that his "positioning" shouldn't have been, "Well I think business school could be good for me, but I don't really need an MBA that badly, so I'm just kind of applying to see what's out there." That's literally how he answered the "Why and MBA?" questions on all his apps.

School Name Brand Recognition Misconception

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