The Economist just released its 2011 Full-Time MBA Rankings, and the Darden School of Business ranks #3 in the United States and #4 in the world. Within the criteria, Darden is rated the #1 full-time MBA “education experience” in the world. The School is ranked in the Top Five for:
- Opening new career opportunities
- Diversity of recruiters
- Student assessment of career services
- Personal development and educational experience
- Faculty quality
- Alumni effectiveness
- Facilities
The Economist ranking collects data from business schools and surveys both students and alumni.
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Darden’s superb ranking in the Economist Ranking should come as no surprise to anyone who has looked at Darden carefully. I believe one reason why Darden is ranked higher by the Economist than by US News & World Report, for example, is that the Economist has tried to look at contributions that schools have made to their students’ career development and educational experience rather than just look at where students ended up. Recent news about admission practices of some of Darden’s competitors have revealed a striking pattern to their admission policies; by and large admitting students from a handful of elite universities and who also come from a similarly exclusive club of employers. What differences there are between salary data of students graduating from Darden and those graduating from Harvard or Stanford are probably a reflection of admission policies in force at these institutions. If a Yale graduate who worked at McKinsey for five years gets somewhat more in salary after getting his/her MBA than a University of Florida graduate who worked in a local real estate company does after getting his/her MBA, that is no feat of success for the institition granting the MBA to the former student. A finer grained analysis of data provided by the business schools would probably change traditional rankings quite a bit. The Economist Ranking should be of service in provoking a rethinking of ranking methodologies and a re-assessment of traditional rankings.
Interesting perspective Gokhan!