Each year, a number of popular magazines and newspapers rank business schools around the world in terms of overall quality as perceived by their editors. These rankings attract a great deal of attention and allow publishing companies to cash in with ad sales to schools and other organizations wanting exposure in these highly read publications.
Popular rankings, such as those published in BusinessWeek, Financial Times, U.S News &World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and The Economist all use different criteria. The weighting systems and methodology used by these publications can change from year-to-year, causing schools to rise or fall in rankings without any significant change in their programs.
Rankings provide prospective students with a place to begin searching for a business school, but they are only part of the story. Prospective students and their parents should be aware that selecting a business school solely on rankings can be misleading to those looking for the perfect business school fit.
"For some students, choosing the No.1-ranked business school in the world would be absolutely the wrong choice" says John J Fernandes, president of AACSB International. "Choosing a business school is much more personal, requiring careful thought as to the preference of the location, size of school, size of classes, availability of faculty for one-on-one attention and other factors. These are just as important as the type of program and its perceived reputation."
Andrew Policano, Dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine says that after a prospective student considers information readily available, the rankings may not be very useful at all. When BusinessWeek, Financial Times and U.S News published their first rankings, their intentions were to fill a niche and boost circulation- not to fundamentally alter the way business schools operated. Yet, their rankings have dramatically changed business education in many significant and undesirable ways," says Policano.
In their quest to get higher and higher ranking recognition, business schools have altered they way they do business to the point where, as Policano points out: "Business Schools devote a disproportionate amount of time and money to improving their ranking status. Some even have multiple staff members whose jobs are devoted simply to manning "the ranking desk". As the war of the rankings escalates, the balance of power is shifting from assessment to obsession with ranking status".
While ranking are a market reality, their true value should be scrutinized by prospective students, parents and others who may provide advice on school choice. It is important that students first consider what is best for them on a personal level and how their personal needs fit in with their desired field of study.
Google 
Facebook 
Twitter 
Myspace 
Yahoo 
Digg 
Del.icoi.us 
Windows Live 
Reddit 
Blogger 
