US News' Top Online MBA Programs - 2011

Picture Courtsey: aceonlineschools.com

In its inaugural ranking of online MBA programs, U.S. News & World Report named 14 of 164 ranked programs, in alphabetical order. The schools include Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, and George Washington University’s School of Business.


The schools that made theranking had to be ranked in the top third of three of the four categories which are:

US News Ranking for MBA Programs - 2012 ranked

Like all rankings of business schools, the U.S. News list often engenders much controversy and debate. But it is among the most influential and most followed of several prominent rankings. This year, U.S. News said it surveyed all 441 master’s programs in business accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Some 393 responded, with 136 respondents providing enough data needed by the magazine to calculate full-time M.B.A. rankings. U.S. News ultimately ranked 102 business schools this year, down from the 111 it gave numerical rankings to last year. At the bottom in a tie for a ranking of 101 were the business schools at Rollins College in Florida and Santa Clara University in California.

The magazine only ranks U.S.-based schools, unlike BusinessWeek, The Financial Times, or The Economist which publish global rankings, either combined or separate.

*To know how the rankings of different magazines and publications differ, and the methodology check out this post*

How to read the US News 2013 ranking table:

School: To fit all the data in the table above, we used the shortest possible name of the school. That’s why some schools are identified by their university names and others by the name of the business school.

Index: The total score that U.S. News assigns to a school. U.S. News says the “data were standardized about their means, and school scores were weighted, totalled, and rescaled so that the top school received 100; others received their percentage of the top score.”

Top Ranked Technology/IT Focused MBA Programs

A lot of applicants regularly enquires about what are the best business schools for an MBA in technology or MBA in information systems or just MBA with IT focused subjects, and the top technology MBA rankings. According to a recent article in CIO Magazine, the tech-centric MBA programs give students the option to combine business administration with information systems studies– essential for any Senior IT leadership position. The following rank as the U.S. News top 10 business schools for information systems:

1. MIT Sloan

MBA candidates attending MIT’s Sloan School of Management have a new facility to enjoy. Overlooking the Charles River, the new building, known as E62, is the “greenest” building at MIT with its light-sensitive window shades, green roof, and irrigation system designed to minimize water use.

IT-related courses: Fundamentals of Digital Business Strategy, Generating Business Value from IT, Information Technology as an Integrating Force in Manufacturing, Global Information Systems: Communications and Connectivity Among Information Systems, Integrating Information Systems: Technology, Strategies & Organizational Factors

QS Top MBA Ranking - By Region and by Specialization

The QS Global 200 Business Schools Report provides an alternative to traditional MBA rankings by highlighting the value of MBA programs around the world according to the qualification’s end consumer—the MBA employer. Over 2,000 responses were received from 42 countries, making this the largest survey of its kind.

Methodology - MBA employers were asked to identify the business schools from which they prefer to recruit. Respondents also identified business schools they deem to produce excellent hires in ten areas of elective specialization: finance; strategy; marketing; entrepreneurship; corporate social responsibility; information management; innovation and international management.

If you’re considering pursuing an MBA, the QS Global 200 Business Schools Report can help in your research process by identifying which business schools are meeting the needs of international employers and revealing some of the newer programs that are gaining in reputation.

Top Three Business Schools, by Region  -

Which business schools do the most satisfied MBA graduates go to ?

Getting an M.B.A. from a top tier school is always an expensive affair. An MBA degree from Harvard Business School, for instance, can dig a deep hole in your pocket (approx. $290,000 on average for tuition and two years of foregone salary).

Many of the readers might be aware of the fact that Forbes, the magazine, ranks business schools every two years based on the return on investment of their alumni. A reccent article from Forbes highlights the "satisfaction" rank of these business schools based on the information collected during the survey. However, just like with any other MBA ranking, it is important to know how this ranking works. Forbe's MBA Ranking is based on ROI along with responses from alumni on their level of satisfaction in three areas: M.B.A. education, current job and preparedness relative to other b-school grads. The three satisfaction ratings are then averaged to come out with the list of the most satisfied MBA graduates. Any school that did not respond from at least 25 graduates is excluded from the list.

So how the ranking for the schools sending most satisfied MBA graduates look like? Check out the surprise school at No. 9!

Business Week's Top Executive and Part Time MBA Program - 2011

Executive MBA Programs

The latest Bloomberg Businessweek ranking of the world's top executive MBA programs features a shakeup at the very top. The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business has captured the No. 1 spot for the first time since the ranking began 20 years ago, ousting Chicago-area rival Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, which until now was the only No. 1 school in the ranking's history.

Top Five Executive MBA Programs are -

1. Chicago Booth School of Business
2. Columbia Business School
3. Kellogg School of Management
4. IE Business School
5. UCLA Anderson School of Management

For the complete list, click here

Part-Time MBA Programs

In the two years since Bloomberg Businessweek last ranked the nation's top part-time MBA programs, it would appear there's been little change in the established order. In five of the six regions, the No. 1 school remains the same, with only the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business becoming a new No. 1 in the Midwest, ousting the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Top Five Part-Time MBA Programs are -

1. Elon University’s Love School of Business
2. UCLA Anderson School of Management
3. Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business
4. University of Nevada, Reno
5. UC Berkeley Haas School of Business

 For the complete list, click here.


BW's Ranking methodology for EMBA and Part time MBA

The methodologies used by Bloomberg Businessweek to rank part-time MBA and executive MBA share one thing: a focus on the end-users’ satisfaction, whether they are students who attend the programs or companies that enroll employees.

The EMBA ranking is based on two surveys—one of EMBA graduates and a poll of EMBA directors, where each of them rank the school. BW contacts the graduates and ask them to complete a survey on teaching quality, career services, curriculum, and other aspects of their experience. The results of the 2011 survey are then combined with those from two previous surveys (2009 and 2007) for a student survey score that contributes 65 percent of the final ranking. The director of each program participating in the ranking is asked for his or her top-10. We assign 10 points for every No. 1 ranking, 9 points for each No. 2 rating, and so on. The point totals for each program contribute the remaining 35 percent of the final ranking.

BW's newest ranking—of part-time MBA programs—is by far the most complex. The student survey contributes 40 percent of the final ranking, with academic quality and post-MBA outcomes contributing 30 percent each. To determine which programs are tops in academic quality, BW combines six equally weighted measures: average GMAT score, average student work experience, the percentage of teachers who are tenured, average class size in core business classes, the number of business electives available to part-timers, and the percentage of students who ultimately complete the program. To gauge post-graduation outcomes, BW determines the percentage of student survey respondents from each school who say their part-time MBA program was “completely” responsible for their having achieved career goals.

The Economist Ranking - Tuck takes the honors

The Economist’s methodology, which ranks U.S. and non-U.S. schools in one global ranking, is focused on four categories: opening new career opportunities (35%); personal development/educational experience (35%); increasing salary (20%); and the potential to network (10%). “The figures we collate are a mixture of hard data, such as salary and faculty qualifications, and the subjective marks given by the school’s students, such as a rating of their school’s facilities,” The Economist said.

2011 Economist Rank	2010 Rank	Year-Over-Year Change
1. Dartmouth (Tuck)	2	+1
2. Chicago (Booth)	1	-1
3. IMD	6	+3
4. Virginia (Darden)	11	+7
5. Harvard	4	-1
6. UC-Berkeley (Haas)	3	-3
7. Columbia Business School	12	+5
8. Stanford	7	-1
9. York (Schulich)	10	+1
10. IESE	5	-5
11. MIT (Sloan)	13	+2
12. New York (Stern)	14	+2
13. London Business School	19	+6
14. HEC Paris	9	-5
15. Pennsylvania (Wharton)	8	-7
16. Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	21	+5
17. ESADE	20	+3
18. Northwestern (Kellogg)	16	-2
19. INSEAD	23	-4
20. Duke (Fuqua)	28	+8
21. Bath	29	+8
22. Southern California (Marshall)	18	-4
23. Cranfield	15	-8
24. IE Business School	22	-2
25. Cornell (Johnson)	33	+8
26. Yale School of Management	24	-2
27. UCLA (Anderson)	37	+10
28. Emory (Goizueta)	36	+8
29. Hult International	27	-2
30. Michigan (Ross)	25	-5
31. Texas-Austin (McCombs)	43	+12
32. Melbourne Business School	44	+12
33. Cambridge (Judge)	30	-3
34. Vanderbilt (Owen)	46	+12
35. Washington (Foster)	32	-3
36. University of Hong Kong	48	+12
37. City University (Cass)	53	+16
38. University College Dublin	31	-7
39. Indiana (Keley)	35	-4
40. Notre Dame (Mendoza)	39	-1
41. Vierick Leuven Gent	47	+6
42. Mannheim Business School	26	-16
43. EMLYON	38	-5
44. Georgetown (McDonough)	50	+6
45. Wisconsin-Madison	54	+9
46. University of Queensland	81	+35
47. North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	40	-7
48. Wake Forest University	59	+11
49. Boston University	42	-7
50. Penn State (Smeal)	56	+6

-by Poets and Quant

Top Enterpreneurial Schools - LinkedIn vs Other Rankings

LinkedIn Rank & School	U.S. News Rank	Princeton Review
1. Stanford	2	8
2. Harvard Business School	4	NR
3. MIT Sloan	3	NR
4. California-Berkeley (Haas)	6	NR
5. Dartmouth (Tuck)	NR	NR
6. Pennsylvania (Wharton)	5	NR
7. Columbia Business School	19	NR
8. Babson	1	1
9. Virginia (Darden)	14	7
10. Cornell (Johnson)	NR	NR

Princeton, Are you serious?

Forbe's Top MBA Schools

The Forbes ranking, which focuses on the return on investment graduates achieve from attending business school, found that graduates in Harvard’s Class of 2006 saw their median salaries rise from $79,000 pre-MBA to $230,000 in 2010, the highest jump among U.S. schools.   To assess ROI, the other important ranking criteria, the Forbes ranking also pays close attention to what it costs to attend the top business school programs.

1. Harvard Business School
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business
3. University of Chicago Booth School of Business
4. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
5. Columbia Business School
6. Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University
7. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management
8. Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University
9. Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia
10. MIT Sloan School of Management

 For the full Forbes 2011 U.S. Business Schools Ranking, click here.

The Ranking Puzzle!

Business School Rankings remain one of the hottest and most searched item in the entire B Schools Universe. No wonder these magazine sells so much whenever they are out with their new ranking of the year! With so many rankings around, everyone starts taking side; some quotes the ranking that puts their affiliated school in the best light while other slams the ranking for the most obvious reason - putting their school down in the ranking list. A recent article on Poets and Quants recently made a post about "Ranking the rankings" and here are few interesting observations:

1. Business Week

"Over the 12 biennial rankings published by BusinessWeek in the past 22 years, only three schools have been at number one: Kellogg topped the list five times, Wharton did it four times, and Chicago has been number one the past three times".. interesting after BusinessWeek was taken over by Bloomberg whose President is a UChig alum!
".. has since added an intellectual capital measurement, which gets 10% of the overall weight in the ranking."
"It does not include such factors as GMAT scores, undergraduate GPAs, or starting salaries, but makes the case that discriminating graduate students and the companies that hire recruiters are in the best possible position to judge the quality of a school"

However,
" ..very small differences in MBA opinion could affect a school’s standing."
" ...the most recent 2010 ranking that placed Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business 12th, ahead of the business schools at Dartmouth, Cornell, Yale, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and New York University, among others. The finding justifiably stunned many observers. ".... " a full third of this year’s graduating class at Cox were without jobs three months later. That’s even worse than the 27% jobless number of a year-earlier, despite a fall of $6,000 a year in median starting salaries to $81,000 this year from $87,000 in 2009."

2. Forbes

" ... based on a simple but important metric: the return on investment MBA grads have achieved after five years in the market"
" It’s all about dollars and cents, measuring the worth of a degree five years after graduation."

However,
" Forbes ranking is U.S.-centric"
"Return on investment, while interesting and important, is hardly a measure of the quality of the education or the experience you’ll have."

3. US News

" ... takes into account its own survey of b-school deans and MBA directors (25% of the score), corporate recruiters (15%), starting salaries and bonuses (14%), employment rates at and shortly after graduation (14% to 7%), student GMATs (about 16%), undergrad GPAs (about 8%), and the percentage of applicants who are accepted to a school (a little over 1%). "
"U.S. News is acknowledging that the differences are so small among these schools that it would be intellectually dishonest to say one is better than the other."

However,
"60% of the ranking is based on data supplied by schools "
"The ranking is completely U.S.-centric "
"Why even bother to include the percentage of applicants accepted when you weight it at little more than one percent?"

4. Financial Times

"..based on data collected from business schools and from alums three years after graduation"
"..also includes a research component, weighted at 10%, counting papers written by the faculty of each school in 40 academic journals during the past three years"
"Arguably the single best global ranking of business schools "

However,
"..data, reported to the FT by the schools, is being fudged by some schools who also include in the number their Executive MBA grads who already have high paid jobs."
" ..trying so hard to be global that it ranks many non-U.S. and European schools far too highly over institutions that have significantly better MBA programs"
".. includes in its ranking other factors that have no impact on quality, such as the percentage of women faculty at a school"
" FT’s own methodology fails to clearly explain all the data it uses to rank schools.."

5. The Economist

"..based 20% on student and alumni surveys and 80% on data provided by the schools.."
"..Takes a global perspective on business school education."

However,
"..probably the most flawed, if not downright silly, of all the MBA rankings "
" ranking raise meaningful credibility issues with the methodology and the accuracy of the data.."
"..80% of the ranking is based on unaudited information from business schools"
"There are some incredibly peculiar results in this ranking, which raise significant credibility issues. "
"..does not provide an index to show you the differences among the schools at their ranks."

6. Wall Street Journal

"..surveyed recruiters on 21 different attributes, including students’ leadership potential and strategic thinking, their previous work experience, the faculty and the curriculum, and the career services office."
"..simple to understand, measuring only the views of the recruiters who come to campus to hire MBAs."

However,
".. you’re surveying entirely biased people."
"stopped regularly doing an annual ranking with the September, 2007, list, probably because its flawed methodology led to quirky results and significant criticism"


So there you go! None of these rankings are black or white but they do sell the magazines!!!

Financial Times 2011 MBA Rankings

Ranking frenzy has started all over again for many MBA aspirants, students and schools with the release of FT's 2011 MBA ranking. The new rankings can be found on FT's website. However, before we look at the top 10 schools, let's go back to our previous post on Business School Rankings - Which one to look at? and see what does FT ranking really measures:

The Financial Times
It has surveyed graduates three years after graduation and gathered data directly from the schools since 2000. The FT ranks schools based on three factors; Performance of the MBA program, Diversity and the Research rating
Financial Time's Website explains in detail its ranking methodology, however, here is a summarized version of it:

1. The schools should be accredited ones and have a full time MBA program for last 4 years with first class graduated three years back.
2. It surveys alumni (from three years back for e.g. for 2011 ranking, FT surveyed Class of 2007) and current students.
3. Ranking are based on 20 criteria within these three areas: (1) Alumni salaries and career development, (2) Diversity and International Reach, and (3) Research capabilities.
4. Also the overall ranking is influenced by the ranking from the previous three years.
5. Alumni were surveyed on data points such as “Weighted salary (US$)”, “Placement success rank”, “Alumni recommend rank” and “International mobility rank”.
6. Schools were surveyed on criteria  such as “Employed at three months”, “Women faculty”, “International board”,  “International experience rank” and “FT doctoral rank”.
7. For the research part, the research papers written by faculty in 45 journals over the past three years are counted. Schools are awarded points per number of papers and weighted for faculty size.

So let's see the Top 10 MBA programs, as ranked by FT:
1. London Business School
1. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
3. Harvard Business School
4. INSEAD
4. Stanford GSB
6. Hong Kong UST Business School
7. Columbia Business School
8. IE Business School
9. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
9. IESE Business School

Since "internationalism" is one of the important factor in FT ranking, many of the top 10 schools are European schools that are more diverse in terms of different countries from where their students are coming in and different locations their alumni land up after MBA education. 

So what does it mean for you? It could be substantial if you are one of those who are heavily influenced by the MBA rankings or nothing if you know what you want from your schools and have shortlisted schools based on your requirements.

Business School Rankings - Which one to look at?

During the last decade, many firms and publications have started analyzing the business schools across the world and as a result, business school rankings have mushroomed all over the place. MBA aspirants give particular importance to these b school rankings and their decision to apply to a school and attend a business school can sometime be substantially influenced by these rankings. This is especially true for international candidates who rarely get the opportunity to do the campus visits and know the school first hand and hence, outside perception of these business schools is the usually the main input their decision making.

Few of the most prominent rankings are published by Business Week, US News, Financial Times, Forbes , Economist and Wall Street Journal. With so many rankings to choose from, and with multiple instances of a substantial variance in the ranking of the same school in different rankings, interpreting the ranking numbers is not easy. Should you watch them closely? Should you just leave them out of decision making? The answer is yes, you should use them but intelligently.

Limitations of B school rankings
The best way to understand these B school ranking is to first understand the limitations of these ranking. so let's look at them -

1. Each B school ranking publication has specific criteria against which it measures all the schools. These criteria vary from publication to publication. Hence, the eventual ranking of a school in a particular publication is a reflection of how good that particular school fits those set of criterias defined by that publication. It is NOT a very accurate indicator of how good a school is. Rankings are created to generate excitement and sell magazines, and they indeed do a great job.

2. The ranking involves data collection through surveys and many other points. Hence, just like with any statistical evaluation, the result will be objective in nature and the ranking models will not completely incorporate the subjective part of MBA education in a business school. For e.g. While the ranking may tell you that the school has good recruitment relationship, excellent faculty and world class brand based on certain criteria but it will not tell how HAPPY, a very subjective thing that may have a different definition for different individuals, a student is in the same B school.

3. Ranking do not measure what YOU want out of your business education,  they rank what they seems fit to rank a business school on.

4. Ranking is based on the survey results coming from B school students and these students, knowing that their action can influence the school's ranking, can very well talk more positive about their respective schools. Although advanced statistical techniques can be and is used to elimiate this behavior to certain extent, it is impossible to completely eliminate it.

5. Overall ranking mostly hides the strength of a particular school in a specific functional area. For e.g. one of the top enterpreneurship course is available at one of the schools which is not ranked in even top30 range of most of these publication's ranking.


Overview of the major rankings
Having seen the limitations, let's see what the six major publications care about and uses as a criteria set to evaluate business schools against :

1. Business Week
It was the first publication to do a ranking. They issued their first in 1986 and focused on MBA students and corporate recruiters. 45% of the ranking is based on graduating students' survey responses. The recruiter poll accounts for 45% of the ranking and, since 2002, the remaining 10% is based on an intellectual capital rating from tallying journal articles and books published by faculty.

2. US News
It started in 1987 and ranks all MBA programs accredited by the AACSB. Rankings are based on 4 measurements: The deans and directors ratings account for 25%; the ratings from the recruiter survey account for another 15%. Placement success accounts for 35% and student selectivity accounts for the remaining 25%.

3. Forbes
It began publishing a ranking of MBA programs in 2000 based on return on investment. Forbes calculate ROI by looking at alum compensation five years after graduation minus the tuition and the forgone salary during school. They survey graduates five years after graduation.

4. The Financial Times
It has surveyed graduates three years after graduation and gathered data directly from the schools since 2000. The FT ranks schools based on three factors; performance of the MBA program accounts for 55%. Diversity accounts for 25%. The research rating accounts for 20%.

5. The Wall Street Journal
This ranking, first published in 2001, is based on surveys of corporate recruiters. The ranking components for all schools measured include three equally weighted elements: perception of the school and its students (20 attributes), intended future supportive behavior toward that school, and a measure of mass appeal based on how many indicated that they recruit at the school.

6. Economist Intelligence
This branch of the Economist organization has published a book on business schools, "Which MBA?" since 1988. Their online ranking began in 2002. They collect data from the schools, current students and recent graduates. The ranking measures career opportunities for graduates (35%), the quality of the educational experience (35%), increases in salary pre and post MBA (20%), and the potential value of the alumni network (10%).
Souce: Accepted.com

How to look at the rankings?
Use the ranking only for the initial research on the schools. Rankings from different publications can be used as a sanity check to do the reputation check. However, don't get fixated on the absolute rank of the school but observe the range in which most of the publications have put a particular school to understand where it stands. If, for e.g., Chicago Booth is ranked #1 in Business Week and #6 in US News but Wharton is ranked #3 in Business Week but #1 in US News, it just means that both these schools are top tier schools and are in about top - 10 range. It does not mean that Chicago is better than Wharton or vice versa, because the definition of "better" will depend on what YOU consider better.

Look at the criteria of the various pulication's ranking and compare that with your own set of requirements from a business school education. This comparison will help you to understand which ranking should mean the most to YOU out of all the available rankings. However, it still does not mean that the ranking should be your sole criteria for selecting a school. None of these rankings can replace your own research about the school through campus visits, interaction with current students and alumni, and rather be used only as a starting point.

Like this post? +1 us and share it with your friends using any of our sharing widgets below!