There is a fascinating article on university rankings in the latest edition of Knowledge @ Wharton. The article discusses a research study led by Wharton finance professor Andrew Metrick. Using a model similar to those used to rank professional chess players, Metrick and several colleagues from Harvard and Boston University have developed a new ranking for undergraduate programs.
Although this article focuses on college rankings, there are some interesting parallels to the MBA rankings world. For example, one of the central critiques that Metrick and company have for current college rankings revolves around the fact that schools can manipulate them. According to Metrick, this is typically done via early decision options (to artificially boost yield) and by encouraging unqualified applicants to apply (to boost selectivity numbers). Some have argued that these practices are taking place in the MBA admissions world…
For the full text of the article and the resulting undergraduate rankings, follow this link:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1104
Also, for those of you who are hungry for stats, a Clear Admit blog reader brought the following site to our attention: http://www.investigatio.com/mba/. Although somewhat out of date, this site includes a wealth of data as well as admissions decision information for hundreds of MBA applicants.
