MBA Rankings

Q: I have read with great interest and amusement all of the hoopla surrounding Business Week's latest ranking of MBA programs. It is absolutely astounding to see how seriously MBA students and prospective students treat the results of what are clearly highly subjective rankings based upon unscientific surveys. Given the obvious deference that is paid to the popular media when it comes to evaluating the quality of management education, why go to any MBA program. Surely you can learn all there is to know about how to manage or run a company by reading either Business Week or US News and World Report.

A: An aside: it's true that most of the top companies and consulting firms do most of their recruiting from top-20 B-schools, but most of the MBA- level jobs in the U.S. are not created in top companies and firms. This is why I think that the Business Week rankings (for example) only tell a small part of the B-school story; these rankings give the very false impression that most of the country's business jobs-- and most of the desirable business jobs!-- exist within the Fortune 500. But the fact that scores (hundreds?) of other MBA programs have emerged and grown during the past couple of decades suggests that a lot of MBA-level jobs (numerically greater than Fortune-500-style jobs, and perhaps less powerful) have been created by medium-sized and small-sized businesses in many places. So if your goal is to climb the corporate ladders of Hewlett-Packard, Chase-Manhattan, Time-Warner, and McKinsey, a top-20 MBA is your best bet. But if you want to work at most other places-- White Castle, Sun Bank (of Florida), your local country club or race track, or (gasp!) a mom-'n'-pop restaurant-- an MBA earned from a local or regional school can have more pull than a Harvard or Stanford MBA! I read your commentary on the MBA program rankings with amusement. It amazes me that many top companies and consulting firms recruit almost exclusively from those same schools on Business Week's list yet people like you claim it's all 'hoopla'.

Sure, it doesn't matter whether your school is 5th or 7th, but it's reputation as a top ten or top twenty B-school DOES, like it or not. Perhaps it also amazes you that people read Business Week, or the NYTimes at all. I have to disagree, a top twenty MBA has more pull anywhere. Regional companies would kill for top name MBAs, they just usually can't get them. A top twenty MBA is obviously not for everyone. If working at a local company is your goal, it would probably be cheaper and easier to go to a lesser known B-School but not more strategic. However, if Goldman or McKinsey is your goal, a top twenty B-School is almost a necessity.