TOP MBA School rankings -- based on what?

There are a lot of schools offering MBA in the country and overseas as well. India for one has 2000 business schools, more than any other country. More schools are tailoring their programs to particular industries such as health care, public service and encouraging students to focus in one area such as Human Resource, International Business etc. Schools such as Wharton is offering free MBA courses dubbed as MOOCS and University of North Carolina –NC is offering distance learning MBA program. These top two Business schools are not shying away from educational technology as a means to maintain competitive advantage in the industry.

A lot of indirect and direct costs are associated with taking an MBA program. Money and time are the top two. The recent ranking of full-time MBA programs published in The Economist (as shown below), showcases these schools. The ranking weight was according to what students say is important, which in my opinion is a very subjective method to come up with the rankings. One reason may be of much importance to another person considering the MBA program than for another individual.  The schools are ranked based on students’ opinion. It relies heavily on self-reported data.  The title of the ranking should have been, “Ranking of full-time MBA programs based on the importance of personal development” and another “Ranking based on the importance of increase in Salary” and so forth. Or it could show a ranking on a cost-benefit analysis. To make the ranking even more compelling, The Economist could have presented the data with graphs on percentage of students with preferences on certain criteria and based the different rankings from it.

 

MBA rankings such as this base it on what is easy to count – GMAT scores, salaries. It lacks indicators such as teaching quality, networking opportunities etc. It does not even mention where the samples of students are coming from – from which school they are currently enrolled as this could have an effect on the result.

I was ready to embark on another journey in my life that I decided to take an MBA after taking a break from my career of 5 years. The cost of the MBA program played a huge part in my decision which school to choose, not to mention the location and the amount of time I’ll be spending to be actually in school. Sure, I could get information here and there regarding salary or GMAT scores  but if I was a potential student this ranking would be of little use to me. The ranking itself is flawed.   To rank a school based on factors that are subjective is no ranking to even consider at all.

So, what was your reason for choosing your school?

 

Reference:

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21587781-which-mba-2013