Feedback: Update School Clusters

Question

Should we update the school clustering?

The cluster grouping was done awhile ago. Although the clustering line is murky, I think it has changed a bit since inception. It seems only the M7 were included in the original Ultra Elite cluster. For example, Columbia has fallen behind in the last few years to other schools. Also, some schools like Tuck may deserve to move up from Elite to Ultra Elite.

Any thoughts?

unhedged · Answer

Why do you think Columbia has fallen behind? Apart from employment reports, can you quantify that statement?

I personally don't think they need to be updated. They are meant to guide individuals, and are ultimately irrelevant. I think any current changes right now will be based off the effects of the economy, and its much too soon to assume it represents a change, rather than a blip (in a school's quality).

asimov · Answer

I think there should be a process in place like an annual or biannual review of these categories. This is to ensure the grouping are up-to-date.

closdubois · Answer

https://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolra ... a-rankings sort by recommends imo if the our clustering doesn't differ too much from the clustering on ft we should be good

shadow · Answer

it's usually not good just to rely on one ranking (especially one based overseas when the majority of schools you are considering are American).

US News is probably the most widely used ranking source for most colleges and grad schools. Apart from that, business week, forbes, WSJ, etc. all publish rankings, so it would be a good idea to look at at least a couple of these rankings and compare them to our subclusters:

GMATclub subclusters:

Ultra Elite

H/S/W
Columbia, Sloan (MIT), Kellogg (Northwestern), Booth (Chicago)

Elite

Stern (NYU), Darden (VA), Tuck (Dartmouth), Duke (Fuqua), Yale SOM, Haas (Berkeley), Ross (Mich), Johnson (Cornell)

---

US News Top 15

HBS
Stanford
Kellogg
Wharton
Sloan
Booth
Haas
Tuck
Columbia
Yale
Stern
Fuqua
Ross
UCLA
Tepper
Darden

--

BW top 15

Top Ranked U.S.
1 University of Chicago (Booth)
2 Harvard University
3 Northwestern University (Kellogg)
4 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
5 University of Michigan (Ross)
6 Stanford University
7 Columbia University
8 Duke University (Fuqua)
9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
10 University of California - Berkeley (Haas)
11 Cornell University (Johnson)
12 Dartmouth College (Tuck)
13 New York University (Stern)
14 University of California - Los Angeles (Anderson)
15 Indiana University (Kelley)

--

Forbes T15

Stanford
Tuck
HBS
Booth
Wharton
Columbia
Johnson
Kellogg
Darden
Yale
McCombs
Haas
Fuqua
Sloan
UNC

--

first point of contention was that Columbia should not be ultra elite. The rankings above don't seem to agree with this point of view.

Second one was that other schools, like Tuck, should move up. If it did move up, which school would come down? Probably none of H/S/W. CBS we just reaffirmed should stay there. Booth is in the top 7 of the three lists above. Kellogg is slightly low on Forbes, but high on the others. Sloan would be one guess.. they are ranked pretty low on both BW and Forbes.

I think if we were to look at a few more rankings, we could get a clearer look. For now, I think the subclusters should remain where they are. Maybe next year we can take a look at 4 US lists and a few international ones, and re-examine the listings.

closdubois · Answer

i think the gmatclub clusters reflect the general perception of "prestige" (whatever that means) and the ft recommends rankings is the one that should be given the most weight

peer assessment scores from usnews would be nice, too, if someone has access to them

shadow · Answer

why?

closdubois · Answer

it's the collective opinion of educated people who mostly likely have taken the various rankings into account.

it takes into account the schools' international reputation.

i guess people might have some incentives to lie--say a harvard alum wants to create more distance between harvard and stanfurd from the rankings... so he votes wharton, k, and mit even though he thinks stanford is really good????

go2bizSkool · Answer

the best ranking would be: N= (job offers at MBB consulting + bulge bracket i-banks + VC + PE) M= (total number of graduates) score : 100*N/M

Moss · Answer

+1

asimov · Answer

In that case, I vote for a jump in ranking for the Chicago and NYC area schools.

Feedback: Update School Clusters

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