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CATEGORY - SCHOOL: IE

Monday, November 17, 2008

BusinessWeek 2008 Business School Rankings: A Closer Look

Today we’ll take a closer look at how the various top programs fared in BusinessWeek’s most recent business school rankings, released last week.

Chicago Booth held firmly to the number one spot it secured in the 2006 rankings, boasting high scores in both the corporate recruiter and graduate surveys. Harvard Business School (HBS) and Wharton traded places this year, with HBS climbing to number two and Wharton slipping to number four. BW’s Louis Lavelle attributed Wharton’s slide to a poorer showing in the intellectual capital category this year than in 2006. 

Columbia, meanwhile, advanced from the number 10 spot to number seven, but MIT Sloan and Berkeley’s Haas School of Business each slipped slightly. Also noteworthy was the fact that Southern Methodist University (18) and Brigham Young University (22) each cracked the top 25 this year for the first time ever. SMU, for its part, has been among the participating schools for years, but lacked sufficient response rates in the recruiter and student portions of the ranking to secure a top spot before now, according to BW’s Geoff Gloeckler.

There were also two newcomers to the Global MBA rankings, IE Business School (2) and Oxford’s Saïd Business School (10). Like SMU, IE has long been a participant but until this year had insufficient recruiter and student response rates, Gloeckler said.

Yale School of Management, meanwhile, seems to have fallen back slightly. It came in at 24 this year, down from 19 in 2006. Lavelle attributed its fall to low student survey scores.

In an article accompanying the rankings, BW takes a look at the current business school landscape, which it says is marked by surging application rates amid “wretched” recruiting prospects.

As has historically been the case in times of economic downturn, application rates to business schools are rising steadily. According to the BW report, schools are reporting double-digit increases in application volume. Chicago Booth, for example, has seen a 20 percent surge in attendance at information sessions around the globe.

But even as more students clamor to get in, job prospects upon graduation are uncertain, with some schools bracing for the toughest MBA job market since the dotcom bust. “I think next fall is going to be very, very difficult,” George Daly, dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, told BW.

The article went on to cite a survey by umbrella group MBA Career Services Council, in which 70 percent of 77 participating schools reported a downturn in full-time recruiting opportunities in financial services in October.

As a result, some students are shifting their focus from investment banking to consulting and other fields. Attendance at recruiting presentations by consulting firms is standing room only, New York University’s Stern School of Business Dean Gary Fraser told BW.

A shift is also taking place in the classroom, as professors are introducing new case studies and re-writing syllabi as part of an effort to make sense of the financial crisis and market upheaval.

Risk management, meanwhile, is expected to play a much more important role in business school curriculums over the next three to five years, according to the BW report, a trend that Robert Meyer, co-director of Wharton’s Risk Management & Decision Processes Center, calls “potentially transformational.”

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Business Schools Brace for Record Round One Application Volumes

As round one application deadlines approach, business schools both here and abroad are bracing for a surge in application volume. Recent reports in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Asia Inc reveal what we’ve long known to be true: When business goes south, business school looks like a better and better idea.

“It’s a very predictable and reliable pattern,” Stacey Kole, deputy dean for the full-time MBA program at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, told the Times. “When there’s a go-go economy, fewer people decide to go back to school. When things go south, the opportunity cost of leaving work is lower.” And for workers who find themselves laid off, the decision is made easier still.

Official application tallies aren’t yet available since deadlines for the first round of admissions still loom at many schools. But early reports indicate that final numbers will be high.

According to the Journal report, New York University’s Stern School of Business has seen a 20 percent increase in attendance at off-site information sessions this year, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management is reporting a 22 percent increase in applications so far, and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business has seen campus visits by prospective students double.

As always, registration volume for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) provides an early indicator of application volume as well. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the test, registrations for the test through the end of September were 11.6 percent higher than in the comparable period of 2007.

In Europe, the same trends are playing out. “Actually, applications to MBA programmes at IE Business school this year have grown over 15 percent and diversity – the number of countries represented – has also increased,” Santiago Iniguez, dean of Instituto de Empresa Business School in Madrid, told Asia Inc last month. “In fact, the number of U.S. students expected for IE’s MBA programme starting this fall will increase over 20 percent,” he continued.

Still, not everyone sees a direct correlation between a sagging economy and a surge in application volume. Others rightly point out that uncertainty about what the job market will look like upon graduation could deter some from applying. And for some students, the credit crisis may make getting loans to cover the cost of business school more difficult.

Derrick Bolton, director of MBA admissions at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, told the Times that he sees very little correlation between a Wall Street bust and an application boom. According to Bolton, application numbers at his school remained “pretty standard” even after some of Wall Street’s greatest declines, such as the market crash of 1987.

For those in good jobs now, meanwhile, the risk of leaving to go to school may seem too great, according to Peter Johnson, executive director of admissions for the full-time MBA program at the University of California Berkeley’s Hass School of Business. “If you are in a good position and you are not confident of how the picture is going to look two years from now, you may stay in that position,” he told the Journal.

And then there’s the issue of student loans, which have become harder to get due to the widespread credit crunch. According to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, 144 education lenders have suspended private and federal loans. But Kantrowitz says business school students should not be impacted as greatly.
“Graduate student loans are the most profitable [for lenders] because the loan balances are the highest,” he told the Journal.

Stefan Szymanski, associate dean of MBA programs at London’s Cass Business School said much the same thing in an article on topmba.com. “Banks are consistently willing to lend to MBAs because they know they’ll get their money back,” he writes. “And yes, even though the banks have stopped lending to almost everybody else, they seem happy to maintain their loan schemes right now – and they wouldn’t be doing that unless they saw an MBA as a sure-fire economic proposition.”

Monday, September 08, 2008

IE Business School Climbs to Top Tier of América Economía MBA Ranking

Spain’s IE Business School shot up eight places this year to secure the number four spot worldwide in an annual ranking of MBA programs by América Economía, a leading Latin American business journal. According to this year’s ranking, Harvard comes out on top, followed by Stanford, Wharton and IE, which also ranked first in Europe.

In compiling its rankings, América Economía considers the school’s prestige, networking potential, knowledge of the Latin American region, scholarship programs, international agreements and alliances, the return on investment offered by its MBA program and career progression of its graduates.

According to IE Director of External Relations Gonzalo Garland, the school’s ascent toward the top of the rankings is the result of a concerted push in the Latin American region over the last three decades.

“IE has offices in eight countries in Latin America that provide support for IE students while serving as a platform for networking among our alumni and for building relations with institutions that play a key role in each country,” he said in a statement.

As always, those of us here at Clear Admit encourage applicants to use rankings as just one of many tools when evaluating options for business school. But especially if Latin America features into your future plans, we though you might find this of interest.

To view the ranking in its entirety, click here. (Note: Rankings of Latin American business schools appear on page one, followed by the global rankings on page two.)

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

European B-Schools Heat Up as Economy Slows

European business schools have received top billing in the past week in both BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal, with both publications reporting increased application volume at schools across the region.

According to the Journal piece, published Friday, business schools across Europe, which have seen application volume rise steadily in recent years, expect a further surge amid current global economic instability. This would follow the usual pattern of past slowdowns, when would-be analysts and managers looked toward graduate business programs as a place to ride out market uncertainty.  

Executive education programs, though, could suffer a hit, according to the Journal, as companies previously happy to fund continuing education for their employees are forced to slash budgets.

The Journal piece goes on to say that for good or bad, the state of the economy is what has people talking on European campuses. “It’s very much the hot topic at the moment in business schools,” Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of London-based Association of MBAs, a consortium of 145 business schools around the world, told the Journal.

For many, the focus is on recruitment trends. According to the Journal, recruitment of new MBAs in the finance sector has already slowed, and both students and faculty are fearing drop-offs in other sectors as well. Administrators are saying that graduates from European programs are increasingly looking for jobs in the stronger Asian economies, the Journal reports.

Professors, meanwhile, see many of the recent stories in the financial press as perfect fodder for classroom lessons and discussion. From the international movement of bad debt to the rouge trader blamed for billions in losses at French bank Société Générale, the crises have been “helpful from a teaching point of view,” Simon Taylor, a finance lecturer at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, told the Journal.

Greater Employer Demand for International Experience, Bargain Prices
An article in BusinessWeek on Thursday also turned the focus on European business schools, citing curriculum improvements, growing corporate demand for international experience and shorter, cheaper programs as factors drawing business school applicants in ever greater numbers toward European business schools.

According to the BW report, applications to INSEAD, the French business school with campuses in Fontainebleau and Singapore, jumped 20 percent in the past year, and American student enrollment grew 24 percent over 2007, to 73 students. Barcelona’s IESE had 32 percent more applications from the U.S. and expects to enroll 35 Americans in the next class – a 60 percent increase. ESADE, also based in Barcelona, has received an overwhelming onslaught of inquiries from American applicants as well, BW continued.

Speaking to BW, INSEAD Dean Frank Brown suggested that more and more young people recognize the value of an MBA, but fewer want to devote two years – the length of most U.S. programs – to earning one. Others credit the U.S. recession as a contributing factor to higher European B-school applicant volume, BW reports.

The dollar’s week performance against the euro raises the cost of European programs for U.S. students, but even so, tuition at schools overseas represents a bargain. BW reports that the average tuition at the top 10 European schools is less than $73,000, vs. $86,600 at Harvard Business School, and about $95,000 at Wharton.

Another draw for American students, according to BW, is the European schools’ effort to enhance their focus on issues of social justice. Responding to student demand, several top European schools have added a wealth of new courses on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship and doing business in developing countries, as well as founding new centers devoted to these and other issues.

Finally, according to BW, European business programs on average are smaller and more diverse than their American counterparts. Compared to Harvard and Wharton, whose MBA classes are 63 and 55 percent American, respectively, European schools are much more international. French students make up just 14 percent of the MBA class at France’s Paris HEC and Brit’s comprise a mere 5 percent of Oxford’s MBA class.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Financial Times Releases 2007 European Business School Rankings

The Financial Times (FT) has released its 2007 European Business School Rankings, and gold and silver go to the Paris HEC School of Management and the London School of Business respectively, echoing last year’s results. The battle for bronze, though, was more exciting to watch. INSEAD shot up from the number-10 spot it held last year to steal third, knocking Switzerland’s IMD down to fourth.

The European Business Schools Ranking is a meta ranking of European schools according to their results in five other FT rankings released this year, which look specifically at MBA, EMBA, open executive education, executive education, and management masters programs at business schools around the globe.

The EMBA program at INSEAD, with campuses in Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore, was included in the European ranking for the first time this year, helping the school make its ascent toward the top.

European schools in general are optimistic about the future, according to the FT. This is especially true given the approaching 2010 deadline for implementation of the Bologna Accord, which is designed to harmonize the European higher educational system and provide a more internationally recognized bachelors-masters progression for awarding degrees at schools in each of the 46 signatory countries. The anticipated consequence of the accord – and resulting parity between graduate program degrees across countries – is greater mobility for students and faculty.

In anticipation of the Bologna Accord’s implementation, there has been an explosion in masters programs across Europe. Of these, more than 12,000 are set to teach management, according to a report by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC).

The exact impact this will have on the traditional MBA market is unclear, but applications appear to be steady, the FT reports. “Most schools are reporting an increase in uptake of all courses,” Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of the Association of MBAs, told the FT. Interest in part-time MBAs, executive MBAs and distance learning seem to be on the rise, she says, but not to the detriment of traditional MBAs.

Purcell points to declining employer sponsorship of graduate management education as a contributing factor to the trend toward part-time programs, as students increasingly look for ways to pay their own way while working. Advances in technology, too, have made distance learning more attractive, she says.

Some European schools are reporting greater interest from abroad, especially as the Bologna Accord promises to make European degrees carry the same significance as those from other schools around the globe. Increased U.S. marketing and interest in one-year MBA programs are also cited as driving factors.

According to the FT, the Instituto de Empresa (IE) in Madrid counts 21 U.S. participants in its international MBA program this year and sees increased interest from Asia and consistently strong demand from India. Applicants at IE rose by 30 percent this year, and student numbers by 15 percent, the FT reports. The school is considering moving to two intakes – in April and November – and combining its full-time Spanish MBA program with its international MBA program taught in English.

Friday, November 16, 2007

International B-School Deans’ Forum: BizDeansTalk.com

Concluding this week’s series on deans who blog, we’re taking a look at an international blog that brings together deans from a range of schools – along with other contributors to the field – to debate issues in graduate business school education and the management training sector.

BizDeansTalk was launched in October 2005 by Paul Danos, dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and Santiago Iñiguez de Onzono, dean of Spain’s Instituto de Empresa, and is the first blog to be jointly run by a business school in the United States and in Europe. Danos and Iñiguez serve as the blog’s editors, and Della Bradshaw, editor of the Business Education section of the Financial Times, serves as co-author and mediator. Guest authors and commentators include other deans, professors, program directors, students, alumni and recruiters.

The forum, which began as more of a back-and-forth discussion between Danos and Iñiguez, has evolved into a clearinghouse of information related to management education. Daily posts include excerpts from recent articles appearing in a range of publications, including BusinessWeek, the Financial Times, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal and many others.

Open to the entire business school community, BizDeansTalk serves as a place where readers and contributors alike can share information of interest as well as post their own opinions. Recent posts have covered topics ranging from why women aren’t applying for MBAs to the value of management theory to why MBAs are increasingly turning to private equity.

Perhaps one of the blog’s most distinctive features is its regular discussion of the differences between American and European business school models. Danos and Iñiguez offer their own perspectives and call on others in the field to chime in, providing a balanced and diverse discussion ground. In keeping with its international nature, the blog features contents in English, German, French and Spanish.

As our series this week has shown, deans are increasingly beginning to claim a space in the business education blogosphere. BizDeanTalk’s Iñiguez has been advocating for this for some time now. In a post entitled “Why should deans blog?” from February 2006, he argues that the reasons are many. “Blogging has saved me time, made me more efficient and opened my eyes to a changing media, communication and management education landscape,” he writes. Furthermore, it keeps him up to date with the sector, makes him more effective in his search for information and provides immense networking opportunities, he adds.

Intending all along to include BizDeansTalk in our roundup of deans who blog, we were further encouraged yesterday when the website was ranked number one on the Times of London’s top ten list of workplace and career-related blogs. As you may have noticed, Clear Admit also made the list. We’re very glad to be in such good company!

DISCUSSIONS / BLOGS / WIKI

• What Does 2009 Have In Store For You?
• Advice for Recently Admitted Students from a Tuck School of Business First-Year
• Trivia Tuesday: Public Management at Stanford
• Recessions Are Good Times to Consider a Return to School, New York Times Says
• Admissions Tip: Essay-Writing Difference Makers

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School-Hosted Blogs

Straight from the source: aggregated posts from students and administration. Below are the seven most recent posts in school-hosted blogs.

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• Top 10 Applicants:
• July Dream
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• VidiViciVeni
• B-School Bound
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• MaybeMBA (Chicago)
• Hair Twirler (Georgetown)
• Iday (Chicago)
• J-term Johnny (Columbia)
• La Laudiaria (Wharton)
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• Necromonger (INSEAD)
• Chrisof Meyer (Darden)

• Top 10 Applicants:
• Rungee582
• Iday
• Juggler
• Asiangal
• Forrest Gump
• RusGirl
• Hair Twirler
• JatWarrior
• MBA Babe
• Anand

• Top 10 Students:
• Angel Angie (LBS)
• The Divine Miss N (LBS)
• From Cali (Ross)
• Tim K. (McCombs)
• Noelle (IESE)
• Jerry Blank (Yale)
• Benny (Tuck)
• La Laudiaria (Wharton)
• Karlitos (LBS)
• MBA Gladiator (Yale)

• Top 10 Applicants:
• MBA Jackass
• Marina
• Forrest Gump
• Pupstar78
• Axechick
• Sorebrek
• Angel Angie
• I_Will_Make_It
• Redwolf056
• Vatsa

• Top 10 Students:
• Marquis (Stanford)
• Poweryogi (Chicago)
• KV (LBS)
• FutureMBAGirl (Wharton)
• The Divine Miss N (LBS)
• Vijay (ISB)
• Wakechick (Chicago)
• NoelleBellie (IESE)
• Jerry Blank (Yale)
• Olivier (INSEAD)

• PowerYogi
• Brit-Chick
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• WakeChick
• Dave
• Iceman07
• iwhoElse
• Atta Girl
• Aregon23
• Classy

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