The Wall Street Journal Guide to the Top Business Schools 2003 [Paperback]

Ronald J. Alsop (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wall Street Journal Guide to the Top Business Schools | Publication Date: September 10, 2002

With the credentials of the world's leading business newspaper and the survey's unprecendented methodology, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL GUIDE TO THE TOP BUSINESS SCHOOLS 2003 is the essential guide for students, schools, recruiters and anyone else considering an M.B.A degree For years, prospective MBA students seeking guidance on which business schools to consider have had to rely on rankings with unclear methodologies, subject to the biased opinions of students and school administrators. Now comes The Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive with the second annual edition of what has quickly become the single most important reference tool for prospective students, school administrators and corporate recruiters. Utilising a carefully constructed survey methodology and the extensive resources of Harris Interactive's online polling techniques, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL GUIDE TO THE TOP BUSINESS SCHOOLS shows students what corporate recruiters-the "buyers" of budding management talent-really think of the schools and their students. Each profile of the 50 top M.B.A programmes, as well as of the 50 runners-up, includes information on admissions, enrollment, test scores, the industries and companies most likely to hire the school's graduates, and graduate's expected first year salaries.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Academic institutions have a love-hate relationship with published school rankings. On the one hand, school officials like the prestige that high rankings confer, arguably making them more attractive to prospective students. On the other hand, if their school is ranked too low, they dispute the methodology, dismissing the findings as irrelevant. The Wall Street Journal, in conjunction with Harris Interactive, has entered the fray with a handy guide to the top graduate business schools. Unlike other rankings that survey alumni, students, or the schools themselves, this compilation is based on surveys from recruiters, that is, the people who actually hire MBA graduates for jobs. Consequently, how recruiters regard the schools who are training prospective hires makes for a higher value-added ranking. There is also excellent content here on the MBA job market in general, good tips on how to apply effectively for admission, smart insights into schools that are attractive to women and minorities, and a lot of feedback from recruiters that is essential to anyone who might want to embark on an MBA graduate degree program. Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business is the top-ranked school and is thoroughly profiled, as are the rest of the top 50, making this an extremely useful feature for MBA applicants. This annual has now appeared twice, and if it continues with the high level of research evidenced here, it will deservedly become the best overall business school ranking, making it a well-thumbed mainstay in libraries for years to come. Highly recommended for all libraries and especially vocational education collections.
Richard Drezen, Washington Post, New York City Bureau
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Every faculty member we are working to attract to the Smith School this year has mentioned our Wall Street Journal ranking....On the M.B.A. recruiting front, we've had calls from potential employers who reference our ranking as one of the reasons for contacting us."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 3rd edition (September 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743238230
• ISBN-13: 978-0743238236
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,990,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice complementary book for the one from BusinessWeek, January 16, 2003

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"ckim0727" (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wall Street Journal Guide to the Top Business Schools 2003 (Paperback)

First of all, the school rankings in this book are much different from those found in the other, better-known book from the BusinessWeek. It's so radically different that it places Stanford behind Brigham Young and Wake Forrest. The rationale, according to the book, is that the WSJ is using the recruiters' opinions as the major measurestick, instead of the schools' reputation or average GMAT scores. In a way, it makes sense because what ultimately matters for business schools would be the quality of end-products, namely the quality of graduates after 2 years of study, which would be judged the best by the recruiters.

But this book does not have much detailed information about each school. For a given school, the BusinessWeek guide contains description that's approximately three times longer than what's in this book (I own both). However, this book is much more up-to-date. The BW guide was published in sometime around 2000 and it's pathetically behind the times (it's talking about dot.com things). So, I recommend buying the BW guide first, and then using this book as a complementary material, which would be essential at least until BW comes up with a new, up-to-date version.