How to evaluate business school rankings?

In the past couple of weeks we’ve been following Business Week’s admissions forum heated debate on the fall of Wharton’s MBA rating from 3rd place in 2009 to 5th place in 2010. We believe that the reason for the decrease can be explained by their mediocre recruiting statistics. Only 65.8% of Wharton students were employed by graduation in 2009. This is not a very encouraging number. However, does this mean that Wharton has become a worse choice for you? Not necessarily. While it was a rough year for finance oriented business schools, we believe that recruiting numbers will come back as the economy improves. The volatility of ratings is not a new phenomenon and quick changes over short periods of time have happened before. For example, Stanford GSB was ranked 7th by FT in 2004, 3rd in 2006, 6th in 2009 and 4th in 2010. Does this mean that the quality of a Stanford education or the opportunities it offers students changed over these years?

We at ZoomInterviews don’t think so.

However, doubts expressed by many applicants about the quality of Wharton programs deserve a separate discussion about the place of rankings in the admission process.

According to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) report from 2005, Deans have always believed that ranking measures do not accurately reflect the quality of business education. Measures used in media rankings are often arbitrary, selected based on convenience and controversial. Characteristics that are of little importance are often included, while important characteristics are excluded because they are more difficult to measure. For example, while percentage of employed students at the graduation is an important data point, it does not indicate how many students were employed in jobs of their first choice. The lack of formal definitions and verification processes, combined with the highly visible and influential role of data in rankings has been a recipe for highly implausible data according to the report. Many schools have reallocated resources to activities that can enhance its ranking, such as marketing campaigns, luxurious facilities for a small number of MBA students, and concierge services for recruiters; but these gestures have little to do with quality. The result is an increase in the cost of delivering an MBA program, which generally translates to higher tuition fee for students, the report says.


In general, we agree with the arguments in the report and the rating methodology inconsistencies it mentions. However, despite all the flaws from which ranking methodologies suffer, we do think that rankings provide useful information to the applicants and are a good starting point for more deliberate research. We recommend that applicants take the following into consideration when analyzing MBA rankings:

• Usually, rankings do not reflect the quality of education but relate more to post MBA employment prospects.

• As a rule of thumb, we believe that the top 10-15 ranked schools provide the most lucrative post graduation employment opportunities.

• Movements inside the “top ten” range is not significantly important, as most employers will stick with the same schools independently of their position in this range.

• Attending a top ranked school can be especially beneficial for international students, as many employers recruiting at lower ranked schools will not sponsor working visas.

• Personal post MBA goals may be more important than school ranking. Overall, well ranked schools may be weak in the area of your interest. You should focus on schools that are the best fit with your personal post MBA goals. However, take into account the possible business schools “anomalies”. For example, an applicant interested in investment banking who enrolls in a “marketing” school will potentially have a less competitive recruiting process.

• Business school rankings are less important for students with very strong pre-business school backgrounds. If you were an analyst at Morgan Stanley or at McKinsey before business school, chances are that you will land a great job even if you enroll in one of the lower ranked schools.

• Attending a top ranked school can be especially beneficial for international students, as many employers recruiting at lower ranked schools will not sponsor working visas.

• Dig deeper into the ranking methodologies and understand the components of the rankings as overall results may be explained by weight of components not relevant to you.

• School employment statistics may be a better indicator of your post MBA career opportunities than rankings themselves. Look at this information carefully, especially when making your enrollment choices.

• Getting an MBA from a top ranked school can actually limit your employment choices as thousands of lower caliber employers will see hiring you as a risk. They will consider you as overqualified, will not be able to offer you a six figure salary and will be concerned that you will leave them as soon as you find a better job.