I've been looking at the BusinessWeek best undergraduate business school rankings. With the current economic climate - attending a top 10 school is a must. And that is a liberal estimate - its probably more like a top 5 school. Unfortunately it is not clear exactly what a top 10/top 5 school is - especially since only BusinessWeek has any quasi-serious raking method for undergrad. business schools. I've been starting to doubt the BW rankings. They place a rather large emphasis (30%) on student satisfaction. While student satisfaction is nice, it does not translate into real world credit. What would people here think about the rankings? How should I treat them?
ray - you're too stressed buddy. you're very, very young and you need to lighten up. try and enjoy life a bit more and do an undergraduate degree in something you have an interest in. then go work. there will be plenty of time to join "the establishment" later. just trust me, i have walked the path you're trying to get on. i got an undergraduate degree in philosophy, then got some work experience, then mba, then bulge bracket. i was also involved in recruiting for the banks i worked and was made familiar with the paranoia that undergrads and mbas are so good at. i also realized that the virus had mutated into something a lot different from my days when i was interviewing. something not pretty..... your desire to succeed at what you do and your committment to develop yourself further will ALWAYS outshine anybody who's gone to what you may perceive as a "better" school...... i leave you with a story: a couple of young fish are swimming in the ocean and they run across an old fish. "morning boys", says the elder, "how's the water today?" the two of them nod respectfully and continue forward. a couple of minutes later one of them turns to the other inquisitively and asks "hey dude, what the hell is water?"
1) During raging bull markets, student satisfaction and expectations would be "high". During bear markets, you'd expect it to be "low". 2) Take the rankings with a grain of salt. The top-5 will generally remain the same. The top-10 will generally be the same. The top-20 will generally remain the same. BW mixes things up just enough to keep the rankings newsworthy.
hear hear! Im considering my MBA with a heavy weighting towards schools of this kind, so I can get paid to get laid while I trade for my GMAT score.