Business School Ranking

MBA College Ranking

All Resources|Find Business Schools

The number of business schools in the country has touched 3000 mark. In such a scenario most of the students will first find business schools with a particular program they are looking for, with specific geography, specialization in mind. They will also look at the exam scores accepted by these schools and cutoffs of these schools. Finally they will take into consideration the ranking of the school to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the school before applying to those schools online.

Business School Ranking

Business school rankings try to rank the schools based on various parameters from faculty, infrastructure to course curriculum and placements. Some of them just provide a rating of the institutes instead of ranking them. With so many institutes opening up every year, students definitely need a source to measure schools on various parameters and rankings and ratings definitely come to the help.

NOTE - Business school ranking should be used along with other sources of information. Students should do their own detailed research before deciding which school to attend. Do not rely only rankings or ratings.

Top-ranked business school

While ranking are important, you wont be at a great disadvantage if you do not attend a top business school. The reasons for this are -

  • Measuring the reputation and quality of an institute is not easy. There are many qualitative factors at play which are difficult to quantify. The business school ranking and rating are based on many statistical parameters which may miss the qualitative factors completely.
  • Many local industries prefer to visit local business schools in the vicinity of the industry and recruit from those schools. Ranking and rating of the school may not play a very important role to such local industries.
  • Your success after an MBA depends more on your skills and qualities. Many MBA graduates from smaller, less famous schools have gone to high-paying companies with their hard work and picking necessary skills post-MBA.

Popular Business school rankings

Business India B-school Directory - Business India conducts survey of around 270 schools every year to rate them on various parameters like learning ambience, intellectual capital, brand and growth. It ranks the top 20 schools and rates the schools which fall in next tier. The rating given are A++,A+,A,B++,B+,B,C++. A directory is published every year which gives extensive information on each school.

Best Business Schools survey of All Indian Management Association (AIMA) - This survey ranks those business schools which are approved by AICTE or the government or the university. The survey is based more on factual information than perceptions. The survey is based on questionnaire sent to around 1500 schools. The responses are verified by IMRB. Schools are rated Super League, A and B based on their performance on intellectual capital, admissions and placements, infrastructure, industry interface and governance. The survey is conducted for last 10 years.

Business World Ranking - Conducted by Delhi Based Synovate India, the ranking includes around 100 business schools. The schools are ranked on Campus infrastructure, qualification and experience of faculty, placement performance, return on investment, and international exposure. It also takes into account a perceptual survey conducted with around 150 MBA students. This survey attempts to rank the top 150 schools based on their perception among MBA students.

Competitions Success - GHRDC rankings - A survey is sent to approximately 400 schools and out of them roughly 200 are ranked and rated. The rankings are given as Supreme, Super Excellence, Excellence, and promising b-schools. The survey was started in 2006. Survey takes into account many parameters like Infrastructure, Academic Structures, Admissions and delivery process, and placements.

How MBA colleges are ranked

  • Ranking Methodology - The process of ranking the schools starts with development of ranking methodology. At this stage the agencies come up with the lists of the parameters they are going to evaluate to rank the colleges.
  • Data Collection - The next step is sending the survey to the colleges. Some of the ranking agencies send the survey through email or they ask the schools to fill up an online survey so that data collection and data processing become simple and fast.
  • Data validation - The agency needs to ensure that the claims made by the schools are true. For this purpose the data submitted by the schools is verified through field visits. Sometimes a third party is given the job of data verification.
  • Data Processing - Agencies have their own criteria to decide which parameter carries how much importance. Once the parameters are given appropriate weightage, final score is calculated through a complex formula. The schools are then ranked based on this final score.

Limitation of Business school rankings

  • Most of the rankings are based on survey of a small number bschools. This essentially leaves out those schools which do not participate or respond to the survey.
  • Ranking is based on different weightage given to various parameters. This makes rankings very generic in nature as preferences of a student might be different from those indicated by the weightage given by ranking to those parameters.
  • Ranking put the schools in rank order based on final score. In some case the difference between schools are so minute that it becomes difficult to quantify them.
  • There is wide variation in the ranking of even top schools across various rankings. For example a school ranked 5th in one ranking might be ranked 20th in another.
  • Many rankings take into account a perceptual survey which asks deans, current students and recruiters about their opinion on ranking of various schools. This method brings in a lot of subjectivity in the ranking process. Also how these opinions are used to rank the schools is not clear.
  • Some schools do not disclose all the requried data to rank the schools. In such cases many ranking agencies rely on publicly available data.
  • According to wikipedia article MBA rankings become self-fulfilling prophecy. This means that schools which are ranked higher tend to be perceived by the students as better in terms of quality of education. This perception in turn improves the rankings of the schools.
  • Some rankings are bought.

How to use business school ranking

Ranking should just be a part of the research students needs to do. Students should use ranking to get a feel of reputation, and strengths and weaknesses of a school. He should then find the schools which fit into his/her own preferences and request more information or visit those schools.