DagwoodDeluxe wrote:
It seems that of all b-schools, Booth has had the most positive momentum over the last 3-5 years. The new building, Booth's [massive] donation, upgrades to the curriculum, etc., have all contributed. There have also been significant increases in the average financial aid package (obviously supported by the donation).
All of this has led to an overall increase in the performance metrics of Booth students (higher GMATs and GPAs, better work experience, etc.). In other words, people who may have in the past gone to H/S/W are sometimes now choosing Booth. Additionally, recruiting at Booth has been very strong over the past few years, even during the recession. I read a post in the Booth thread earlier today saying that there are over 300 interview spots for M/B/B for a class of 500ish people! Amazing!
Anyway, I am curious to get peoples' opinions on how high Booth can continue to rise. I'm less interested in how Booth performs in the various "official" rankings and more interested in peoples' own views on where the school ranks relative to competitors.
I would argue that, generally speaking, the hierarchy has traditionally gone something like this:
- Tier A: HBS, Stanford
- Tier B: Wharton
- Tier C: Booth, Kellogg, Tuck, MIT, Columbia
- Tier D: Berkeley, Duke, Darden, Anderson, Ross, Yale, NYU, etc...
Obviously there is much debate about who belongs in Tier C, Tier D, and beyond; that is not my question. Rather, do you guys see Booth moving into Tier B, alongside Wharton? Or maybe even supplanting Wharton as the sole Tier B school?
Interested in your thoughts on how far Booth's strong momentum can carry it. To make it more tangible, if you were admitted to Wharton and Booth, and the financial aid packages were the same, would you choose Booth?
As a Booth student, honestly, I wouldn't like to get into this discussion. Once you get in you realize rankings don't matter 10% as much as you thought they did before getting in, and seeing the way these discussions have turned out in the BusinessWeek and other forums, they seem to attract completely unconstructive comments (if not outright trolling) for a variety of reasons.
Also, moving to Business School Review forum.