MBA Rankings Chat Highlights

Source: BusinessWeek

The 2008 BusinessWeek rankings came at an interesting time in the history of management education and the world in general. Business Schools are facing new challenges -- from having to prepare students for a truly global marketplace to helping them secure jobs amid a financial crisis -- and students are demanding, perhaps out of necessity, more than ever from their educators. With applications on the rise and all these outside factors in play, the rankings are relevant. But, as always, they sparked debate and questions when BusinessWeek recently released them.

During an online chat, BusinessWeek editors Louis Lavelle (LouisBW) and Geoff Gloeckler (GeoffBW) explained the methodology and took questions from BusinessWeek reporter Francesca Di Meglio (FrancescaBW) and the audience about everything from why certain schools slipped off the list and whether the rankings encourage schools to improve. Here are edited highlights from the 2008 rankings chat:

FrancescaBW: If you have any overarching thoughts about this year's rankings, you can fill us in before we begin with audience questions.

GeoffBW: We have six new schools entering the rankings this year -- four in the U.S. and two in the Global MBA rankings. I believe that's the most we've ever had.

We're getting a lot of questions about methodology, so I'll go into that for a second. We survey grads from 100 top business schools, as well as recruiters from nearly 500 companies. We also look at the number of articles published by each school's faculty in 20 top academic journals. The student surveys count for 45% of the ranking, as does the recruiter survey. The remaining 10% is the journal piece. A more detailed explanation  can, obviously, be found online.

Cautiouschat: How successful have the recent graduates been in securing employment, and how did recruitment shape the view of a business school's career development efforts?

LouisBW: We were surprised at just how successful they were, given all the gloom and doom we've been hearing). Overall, there was a 9% increase in base salaries, with some schools seeing more, some less. The view of career services that students had was crucial in how well each school did in the ranking -- a bad career services office can really hurt you.

goldbondbp: What schools showed the most levels of discontent among the student body? Was there anything that stuck out in terms of changes that business schools have made that resulted in a drop in morale?

LouisBW: There was no clear trend showing how changes that schools made translated into discontent, but several schools had low student survey scores including Washington (Olin), Maryland (Smith), and Yale .

shreji: How have rebranding efforts on the part of business schools influenced their rank? Chicago just announced its rebranding to Chicago Booth. In the past, did it hurt schools such as Sloan, Kellogg, Wharton, etc.?

LouisBW: We've been watching the Chicago rebranding with interest, mainly because nobody seems to know what the school should be called. But such efforts generally have had no impact on rankings. The three schools you mentioned in your question all are semi-permanent residents of a neighborhood we like to call the Top 10.

ampropilot2b: Did Chicago's recent gift have an impact on the rankings?

GeoffBW: Not the rankings, but it did force us to scramble a bit to make sure all of our references to the school included the Booth name. It is number one again because it stood out in every category -- No.1 in the corporate rank, No.2 in the grad poll, A-plusses across the board. It wasn't much of a surprise.

mk123: What about the second tier?

GeoffBW: The second tier will be posted online, without ranking numbers.

nmottet: Which school performed best with corporate recruiters?

LouisBW: That would be Chicago, one of the many reasons it's No. 1.

kayanosoto: Why IE Business School ranks second suddenly?

GeoffBW: Both IE and Southern Methodist are unique situations. They have both been part of the participating schools for years, but they always had trouble getting sufficient response rates in the recruiter and student portions of the ranking, which eliminated them from ranking. My guess is that both schools would have been ranked in the past if they would have had higher response rates.

richrodner: What schools were in the top five in intellectual capital?

GeoffBW: Top five, in order, are Duke, Stanford, Maryland, UCLA, and Berkeley.

jhbulls2107: The rankings seem to favor the larger programs. Was there anything inherent within the results to cause this kind of trend, for example, more student and recruiter surveys taken into account?

LouisBW: One reason you see a lot of bigger programs in the rankings is that recruiters favor them. They have a better chance of finding who they need. Another reason is that they have more resources.

shayne: What is it the major distinguishing factor in terms of compiling rankings for BusinessWeek when compared against peers such as U.S. News, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, etc.?

LouisBW: The big one is our student survey. None of the publications you mentioned surveys students, although the Financial Times surveys grads. Most of our competitors base their rankings on reputation. That's one reason why we think our ranking is better. We've also been at this longer.

MBA_Expert: The BusinessWeek rankings have not changed much over the years. Is that sentiment reflective of the competitive environment for MBA programs? How quickly are business schools gaining or losing ground?

GeoffBW: I think what you're seeing are more strong schools. In the past, you might have considered the top 5 or 10 schools very strong. Now, you can go deeper down the list and still be sure you are attending a great program. I think schools are gaining ground faster than losing.

MBAgrad007: Which schools have the best career services? Or the best alumni help in the job search?

LouisBW: Hard to say which schools have the best career services -- 6 of the top 10 received an A+ in that category. But Notre Dame students raved about their alumni base -- super loyal to the school and super helpful on the job search.

jsjpack: If a recent graduate does not reply to the survey, how does that impact the rankings?

GeoffBW: It factors into the school's response rate, which is the main gatekeeper for whether a school is included in the ranking. We had more than 20 schools this year that were eliminated because of low student-response rate.

jsjpack: Your top six is the same from your last ranking except Wharton and Harvard switched places. What caused the change?

LouisBW: Wharton slipped on intellectual capital -- it ranked No. 8 in 2006 and No. 11 in 2008.

Raj2008: What happened to HEC Montreal and York? Is it student satisfaction or companies?

GeoffBW: York fell because of the recruiter survey. HEC Montreal didn't have enough responses from students.

MBA_Expert: How did the current turmoil in the economy affect, if at all, the results of BusinessWeek's bi-annual rankings?

LouisBW: I think it hurt some schools more than others. At NYU, for instance, salaries were flat compared to 2006, I suspect, because a lot of Stern's finance students got caught in the Wall Street mess. That might have hurt their student satisfaction score a bit.

More broadly, I think the economic turmoil made career services more important than ever for students. The career services offices that came through for students won a lot of points for their schools.

goldbondbp: How do the schools use the rankings to bring about change and better respond to student concerns? Have you seen schools that have done this move up in the rankings gradually? What schools don't respond to rankings?

LouisBW: This is a great question, and it points to one reason why the rankings are so valuable. Schools absolutely are responsive to the rankings -- a poor score on teaching quality will result in a faculty shake up, and poor score on career services will result in changes there. I don't have specific examples handy, but it happens all the time and the rankings reflect those improvements.

Bowdoin03: Which school do you see as the "rising star" that might not be on the tip of everyone's tongue just yet?

GeoffBW: I think SMU will surprise some people, but I'm not sure that it should. I know they haven't been ranked for a while, but it was only because we weren't getting sufficient response rates from students and recruiters. I would expect them to remain in the top tier.

jcobden1: What's the biggest change among MBA programs you've noticed this year?

LouisBW: One thing that virtually every MBA program is (or will be) struggling with soon is the influx of Millennials to business school. They're really forcing change on business schools in many areas. I urge you to read Geoff's story about this -- it's deeply reported and fascinating.

MBAgrad007: I know GMAT, salary, etc., are hard stats, but how do you factor/weigh student satisfaction into the rankings?

GeoffBW: We actually don't take the "hard stats" into consideration. The entire ranking is based on the student survey, recruiter survey, and the intellectual capital piece. We only look at things like test scores when deciding which schools to include in the ranking.

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Editor: Chen Minjie