MBA Program Rankings

As demand for Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees increases, more and more schools started to offer these programs, which led to confusion about the quality of these schools and the courses they offered. Consequently, the need arose for a comprehensive and standardized ranking system that would grade schools based on a number of factors--course offerings and the quality of students and faculty. The information from this system could help students make more informed decisions during the admissions and acceptance processes. Over the years, there has been some controversy about the methods of gradation, but program rankings of the best MBA programs in the country have become the barometer by which a particular school's suitability is measured.

Initially, program rankings for the best MBA schools were published in books, using data compiled from various business schools and universities. Gradually, magazines picked up on the demand and began publishing articles ranking these schools. Today, most prominent business publications in the country have special issues that are dedicated to ranking the best MBA programs in the country. These include Business Week, which publishes a biennial rankings issue, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Financial Times, and Forbes Magazine, as well as US News and Word Report. Of these, Business Week's rankings tend to be the most widely awaited and trusted. School rankings may differ from periodical to periodical. It's not unusual to have a school ranked number two in one magazine and seventh in another.

Gradation Criteria for the Best MBA Degree Programs

These magazines use varying grading methods to arrive at their conclusions. For instance, one magazine could base its rankings on the number of articles published by the school's academic faculty, while another uses student satisfaction to judge a college's ranking. These days, many periodicals take into consideration the average GMAT score of students, as well as their average starting salary as the basis for their rankings.

Criticism of MBA Program Rankings

These rankings systems have been criticized for a number of reasons including the fact that these rankings only concentrate on a small and select group of MBA degree programs around the country, while ignoring a large majority of universities and business schools that offer these programs. The result is that most rankings usually feature the same names on the list every year, with only some variations in the numbered position of each school. The ranking systems have also been criticized because of their focus on the business school, and not the quality of the programs themselves. This kind of ranking doesn't take into consideration that a particular school could offer MBA degree courses of varying quality.