Top US MBA Programs - The Economist MBA Rankings 2011

USA has struggled to maintain the pre-2008 Economic growth in the past 4 years but it is still the favourite destination for MBA aspirants. According to QS 2011-12 Jobs and Salary report, there was a 24% increase in MBA jobs in 2011, compared to 5% in 2010. The recovery has been slow. But the Financial and manufacturing sectors has made considerable improvements compared to 2009, contributing to the 24% growth.

The Financial services industry was the most affected after the 2008-09 crisis. The industry and MBA’s image was tarnished to a large extent after the financial crisis. The employment has not fully picked up and recruiters are providing contract jobs for MBAs – a much safer option to manage risk in the industry.

International students with H1B visa is still struggling to get Jobs through on-campus recruitment. Although the demand for Visa in this niche space was not a problem, the competition and preference among recruiters to select US citizens has forced International students to do job search through traditional networking.

The high average salary in Top MBA Programs (Read Top 100 MBA Programs by Salary) has raised the performance expectation of MBAs. Most of the time these expectations are not met by students from top MBA programs. This has led the recruiters to adopt a new strategy - recruit MBAs from 20-100 ranked schools.

Economist MBA Ranking differentiates itself from other ranking publication by comparing one-year with two-year MBA programs. It allows candidates to make an informed decision about the quality of the MBA program in general before choosing programs based on duration. The first column is the relative rank of US MBA programs compared to Full-time MBA Programs globally.

Don’t blindly follow the ranking. Choose Business Schools based on the post-MBA employment opportunity (not just salary but job functions and industries)

Use the ranking as a guideline to shortlist your top 5 Business Schools.