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By Dr. Khawaja Amjad Saeed* FCA, FCMA
Aug 20 - 26, 2001

Every year US News & World Report publishes information about America's Best Graduate Schools. Exclusive rankings are released in respect of various disciplines including Business, Medicine, Law, Engineering and Education. Besides containing lucid commentary, ranking includes pertinent details to enable potential entrants into graduate schools to tailor their needs in educational fields.

This piece looks at the recent ranking of the best business US Schools.

Ranking objectives

As a student, one is always in search of academically best programs to intellectually grow, develop and get settled in some appropriate job. Several variables are considered before selection of the business school. In this respect US News and World Report publishes America's Best Graduate Schools annually. The scope extends to exclusive rankings in business, medicine, law, engineering and education. Additional information is included for guidance to enable a person to tailor a degree to fit into ones goals. The latest issue of the above is of April 09, 2001. This piece has been developed while taking into consideration the material included in it. The ranking of top business schools is based on an overall score of 100 ranked by:

1. Reputation score by academics.
2. Reputation score by recruiters.

Specialties in business schools

Eleven known specialties in business administration discipline are well known. These include Accounting, Finance, Management, Information Systems, International Business, Entrepreneurship, Executive MBA, Marketing, Production/Operation Management, Quantitative Analysis, and Non-Profit Organizations.

Top ten Universities offering the above specialties have been ranked. The table-1 lists top rank (Number one) of the respective Universities:

Table 1:

Business Schools Ranked Number One in Specialties

Sr. #

Specialty

Business School

1.

Accounting.

University of Illinois - Urbana
- Champaign

2.

Finance

University of Pennsylvania
(Wharton)

3.

General Management.

Harvard University (MA)

4.

Management Information
Systems

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)

5.

International Business

Thunderbird Graduate School
(AZ)

6.

Entrepreneurship

Babson College (Olin) (MA)

7.

Executive MBA

North Westem University (Kellog) (IL)

8.

Marketing

North Western University (Kellog) (IL)

9.

Production/Operations Management

Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (Sloan)

10.

Quantitative Analysis.

Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (Sloan)

11.

Non-Profit Organizations

Yale University (CT)
Source: Edited from US News & World Report. April 9, 2001, p.70.

It will be interesting to note that MIT (Sloan) has secured rank number one in three specialties namely, Management Information System, Production/Operation Management and Quantitative Analysis. However Northwestern University (Kellog) has secured rank number one in two specialties namely, Marketing and Executive MBA. Enthusiasm continues to grow in competitive ranking.

Pertinent information

The ranking sheet tabulates eleven pertinent factors considered for ranking of top schools. These include overall score, reputation score by academics and recruiters, average undergraduate GPA, average GMAT, percentage of acceptance rate, average starting salary and bonuses, percentage of graduates employed at graduation, employed three months after graduation, out of state tuition and fees and total full time enrolment.

The table-2 presents top ten business school ranking:

Table 2 :

Top Ten Business Schools

Business School

Rank

Overall score

Standford University (CA)

1

100

Harvard University (MA)

2

99

Northwestem University (Kellog) (IL)

3

98

University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

4

97

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(Sloan)

5

96

Columbia University (NY)

6

93

University of California, Berkley (Haas)

7

91

Duke University (Fuqua) (NC)

8

90

University of Chicago

9

89

University of Michigan

10

88
Source: Extracted from US News & World Report. April 9, 2001, p. 68.

Analysis of information released relating to US top 50 business schools is as under:

Overall Score

The highest score of 100 was bagged by Standford University and the lowest was 60 — obtained by four business schools which bracketed together namely, Babson College, University of Florida, University of Georgia, and University of Pittsburg.

Reputation Score by Academics (Out of 5.0 as the highest)

The highest score of 4.9 related to Standford University and Harvard University and the lowest was 3.0 Brigham Young University (Rank 44). The average of 50 top business school was 3.76.

Reputation Score by Recruiters (Out of 5.0 as the highest)

Harvard University and Northwestern University (Kellog) topped the list with 5.00 out of 5.00. The lowest score was for University of California, Davis (Rank 41) which was assigned a score of 2.60. The average was 3.57.

Average Undergrad GPA (Out of 4.00)

The highest average undergrad GPA of admitted students was 3.60 (Standford University) and the lowest was 3.10 and was assigned to Babson College (Rank 50). The average was 3.33.

Average GMAT (out of 800)

The highest average GMAT score was 730 in respect of Stanford University and the lowest was 617 for Penn State University. However the average for the 50 top business schools was 661. Average exceeding 700 was only in respect of four business schools (Standford University, MIT, Harvard University and University of Pennsylavania).

Acceptance Rate

The lowest acceptance rate was 8.3% (Standford University) and the highest was 51.0% (Wake Forest University).

Conclusion

It is high time that business schools in Pakistan carry out in-depth research in respect of top US Business Schools, update the curricula, adapt various pedgogical tools, upgrade the skills, strengthen logistics and offer a delivery system which must ensure high quality output of business graduates to serve the users in an efficient and befitting manner.

Dean, Executive Programs, Punjab College of Business Administration, Gulberg, Lahore.

e-Mail: kasaeed@brain.net.pk
e-Mail: emba@pgcnet.com