Posted by Clear Admit on April 15, 2010, at 1:00 pm
Posted in:  MBA News , Rankings , School: Babson , School: Berkeley / Haas , School: Chicago , School: Columbia , School: Dartmouth / Tuck , School: Duke / Fuqua , School: Harvard , School: Michigan / Ross , School: MIT / Sloan , School: Northwestern / Kellogg , School: NYU Stern , School: Penn / Wharton , School: Stanford , School: UCLA / Anderson , School: UT Austin / McCombs , School: Virginia / Darden , School: Yale Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) have once again tied for first in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report MBA rankings, released late yesterday. While the major players in the top 15 remain largely unchanged from previous years, there were some notable shifts up and down the ranks.
Stanford, for its part, showed a slight rebound. After a slip to number two last year, the Palo Alto school this year once again forced HBS to share the number one spot, as it had in 2009. MIT’s Sloan School of Management also gained some ground to come in at number three, advancing from the number five spot.
MIT Sloan displaced the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, which dropped to number five this year, tied with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business stayed steady in fourth place.
Rounding out the top 10 were Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and Berkeley’s Haas School, which shared the number seven spot, and Columbia Business School and New York University’s Stern School of Business, which shared the ninth spot. Yale School of Management dropped to 11th, down from 10th last year, and Ross, Darden, Fuqua and UCLA Anderson made up the remaining top 15.
To compile its rankings, U.S. News surveyed all 426 master’s programs in business accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International in fall 2009. Data provided by the schools was used to calculate rankings based on a weighted average of a range of indicators, including program quality as assessed by the deans and directors of peer schools as well as recruiters, graduate placement success and student selectivity.
This year, the U.S. News ranking features several interactive features designed to make it a more useful tool to prospective applicants. A search function lets users narrow the list of ranked schools by location, tuition, school size and test scores.
The U.S. News rankings also feature specialty rankings, a compilation of the top 10 programs in each of 10 specialty fields as determined by nominations by business school deans and directors. Tops in this year’s specialty rankings were as follow:
–Accounting: McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin
–Entrepreneurship: F.W. Olin School of Business at Babson College
–Executive MBA: University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School
–Finance: University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School
–Information Systems: MIT’s Sloan School of Management
–International: Thunderbird School of Global Management
–Management: Harvard Business School
–Marketing: Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
–Nonprofit: Yale School of Management
–Part-time MBA: Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
–Production/Operations: MIT’s Sloan School of Management
–Supply Chain/Logistics: MIT’s Sloan School of Management
As always, we encourage prospective applicants to use these and other rankings as just one of many data points as you work to determine which business school program will best fit your individual needs and goals. As U.S. News itself put it, “It’s important that you use the rankings to supplement—not replace—careful thought and your own inquiries.”
To view the entire U.S. News & World Report rankings, click here.
Although most business schools report that their graduates are actively involved in entrepreneurial activities, all of them do not have specialized programs and resources for future entrepreneurs. So if you want to start your own business after b-school, the Clear Admit Career Guide to Entrepreneurship provides a detailed overview of the nineteen most active, vibrant programs that support a concentration in this field. Strong entrepreneurship programs tend to share several traits in common:
- a campus-wide culture of collaboration and innovation
- institutional support for programs that encourage research and interdisciplinary collaboration
- a streamlined technology transfer procedure
- a location near a technological/start-up hub
For decades, schools like Stanford University in the Silicon Valley and MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have fostered the development of numerous start-up businesses in their locations. The technologies produced by campus researchers at these schools have been brought to market by partnerships between the university, faculty, students, and other entrepreneurs and investors.
“Variations in university location and resources can have an impact on MBA students’ ability to found new ventures in the sciences. In general, students at business schools that are affiliated with strong research universities are more likely to have access to cutting-edge researchers and technologies suitable for commercialization. In addition, schools in California, the greater Boston area and the Philadelphia-New York City corridor have access to a larger pool of skilled partners, including scientists, experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.”
Regardless of location, the schools outlined in the Career Guide to Entrepreneurship offer both strong academic tracks and a range of extracurricular opportunities for students, including courses, student clubs, business plan contests, start-up incubators, and mentoring programs.
“Along with the University of Virginia’s other schools, Darden students benefit from involvement in the Virginia Entrepreneurial Society (E-Society). Dedicated to creating a supportive and encouraging community, the E-Society encourages collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking surrounding new ventures. Participating students may be matched with a mentor who provides guidance and advice regarding entrepreneurial careers. Through the E-Society, students have access to educational resources, professors and alumni, as well as venture capitalists, angel investors, and Charlottesville entrepreneurs and business groups.”
Over two-thirds of the schools in the Career Guide to Entrepreneurship offer a defined course of study for entrepreneurship, from Tuck’s New Ventures Focus to Babson’s Entrepreneurship Intensity Track. Not only will the guide provide comprehensive details that will help you decide which of these programs best support your career goals, it offers valuable information for essays and interview preparation and can be a valuable tool for making a final school decision.
So check out the Clear Admit Career Guide to Entrepreneurship from our new line of career-focused guides—85 pages of specialized information and guidance about the MBA programs that best support a future career in entrepreneurship. It’s available for immediate purchase and download from the Clear Admit shop!
Posted by Clear Admit on September 28, 2009, at 12:00 pm
Posted in: MBA News , Rankings , School: Babson , School: IE , School: IMD , School: Northwestern / Kellogg In today’s challenging economic climate, some applicants are turning to accelerated programs that take only 10-15 months to complete and cost substantially less than a two-year program. These candidates argue that they don’t have the time or money to invest in a two-year program. In light of the growing popularity of one-year MBA programs, The Wall Street Journal surveyed 1,361 recent grads and 731 alumni and reported their findings in a recent article about the one-year MBA track.
The Wall Street Journal ranked fifteen one-year programs (comprised of nine European schools, five in the U.S., and one Latin American school) and European schools clearly led the pack. IE Business School in Madrid ranks #1, Switzerland’s IMD Business School is #2, and Cranfield School of Management in the U.K. is #3. Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and Babson’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business round out the top five, but according to students, international programs offer a strong curriculum and “a much stronger international exposure.” And for 86% of students surveyed, a program’s international focus was the deciding factor in choosing a school.
Only 90 accredited schools worldwide offer a fast-track MBA, and few are located in the United States. Alumni reported that those in the U.S. tend to focus the majority of their career services and recruitment efforts on two-year students. On a positive note, women make up 35% of accelerated MBA graduate classes in the U.S. compared to 23% in international programs; and according to The Wall Street Journal, “American schools tend to excel in softer skills, like teamwork, building relationships, and managing across functions.”
These programs won’t suit everyone. They are both rigorous and time-consuming, and almost two-thirds of students reported spending more than fifteen hours a week on schoolwork outside of the classroom, leaving little time for extracurricular activities. IMD Business School is known for having six-day, 100-hour weeks!
“These students want to be taught, and then they want to move on,” said Sean Rickard, director of Cranfield’s MBA program. A very true statement, indeed—the Wall Street Journal study reported that 82% of students pursued one-year programs so they could return to the work force faster. Fortunately, most alumni reported that recruiters and managers don’t view an MBA degree from a one-year program any differently than a two-year program, and many agreed that the quick degree made their jobs safer during the recent economic crisis.
For the complete Wall Street Journal article, click here.
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