Introduction Who wants an M.B.A. degree in this wretched job market?
Quite a few folks, actually. About 100,000 newly minted M.B.A.s are still flooding the workplace every year. Granted, many of them are struggling to find jobs, but most still see long-term value in the traditional passport to the executive suite. They still value the skills they mastered and the high-powered network of alumni they plugged in to.
Questioning the degree's value is certainly understandable, though. After reaching record levels in 2002, the number of people taking the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) has started trailing off. Even some business school academics have raised doubts about the degree's worth.
During the go-go economy of the 1990s, applying to business school wasn't such a risky decision. Many M.B.A.s were netting multiple job offers, six-figure salaries, and an embarrassment of riches in their packages of bonuses and perks. The days of such instant gratification are long gone. Deciding whether to invest $100,000 or more to earn the degree today requires much more careful thought and planning.
That's where the new edition of The Wall Street Journal Guide to the Top Business Schools comes in. It will help prospective students decide whether it's the right time to head back to campus. And if so, it will be an invaluable guide in picking the program that's the best fit, with its detailed profiles of the 100 business schools that received the most ratings in the third annual Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey of corporate recruiters. We cut through the hype by providing only the most important facts about the M.B.A. programs and by telling you what corporate recruiters -- the buyers of M.B.A. talent -- think of the schools and their students.
This year's ranking is sure to attract plenty of attention because there's a new No. 1 school. After two years in the top spot, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College is no longer the favorite of recruiters. They have warmed instead to the Wharton School, the finance powerhouse at the University of Pennsylvania.
While rankings are but one criterion in the selection of an M.B.A. program, they are a very useful way to distinguish one business school from another. The book includes extensive data about the 50 top-ranked business schools in The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey, plus information about the 50 runner-up schools. It is a global mix of schools, with six international M.B.A. programs among the top 50 and 20 more in the runner-up list. What's more, we tell you which schools are best in which academic disciplines.
The essays in the book provide up-to-the-minute insights about the M.B.A. world from the application process on the front end to the job market at graduation. We also cover the hot-button issues on campus: the M.B.A. value question, curriculum changes, job-hunting tactics, and diversity.
Rather than dwell on the dismal nature of the M.B.A. job market, we focus on how some students not only survived it, but succeeded in reaching what they thought would be an impossible dream -- changing careers. You'll learn how they did it through a combination of pluck and plain old hard work.
To gain an edge in the application process, read the advice of admissions directors at some of the top business schools. We asked them for tips on how prospective students can stand out. Among their suggestions: write knockout essays that tell what makes you so special (creativity is a plus, but please don't bring pizza to the interview), don't play back information from the school catalog in your admissions interview (your interviewer probably wrote it), and don't make silly excuses for your mediocre GMAT score (instead, give the test another try).
Once admitted, students almost certainly will find themselves studying ethics and working on leadership training. Many schools are revamping their curricula, and ethics and leadership are the two buzzwords right now. After receiving some of the blame for the rash of corporate accounting scandals, business schools are trying to make amends by peppering their courses with ethics lessons. They don't expect to turn out choirboys and girls, but they do hope to spark some serious discussion about morality in the workplace.
The book also devotes considerable attention to diversity in M.B.A. programs. We consider the plight of international students, the lack of progress in attracting more women and racial and ethnic minorities to business schools, and the status of a more invisible minority -- gay and lesbian students. Diversity in business schools seems more relevant than ever after the Supreme Court's recent rulings in favor of gay rights and affirmative action. As in most of society, the business schools and the corporations that hire their graduates have far to go to achieve full equality.
The heart of the book is The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive business school survey. It's the only one that focuses exclusively on what recruiters think of M.B.A. programs -- and the results are consequently quite different from other rankings. But it is the recruiter's opinion that really matters most to prospective students, who are returning to business school for one reason: to increase their marketability in a highly competitive job market. How well they achieve their goal depends on how companies view the schools they attend. And such information is more valuable than ever now that recruiters are hiring far fewer M.B.A. graduates.
Business school deans and career-services directors are keen to learn about their weak spots and to listen to recruiters' advice for improving the school's reputation. And recruiters themselves, facing constant competition for the cream of the M.B.A. class, also find the ranking useful in identifying schools to add to their list of "talent suppliers." They are likely to find surprises in the list of "hidden gems" -- schools that aren't typically ranked in the top tier but sparkle for some recruiters.
Because of the survey's recruiter focus, we included only full-time programs. Part-time M.B.A. programs attract few recruiters because most of their students are already employed. And most executive M.B.A. students are sponsored by their employers and aren't in the job market at all.
Only people making hiring decisions rated specific schools -- and only schools they knew from firsthand experience. We didn't want the evaluations to be based purely on the past reputations of the schools. We interviewed the people out in the field now doing the actual recruiting -- the heads of business units, line managers and others -- not just the human-resources executives at corporate headquarters. And we made sure we contacted a broad range of recruiters, from large companies like Citigroup and Dell to small consulting and high-tech firms.
Our survey is also distinctive because it is the only one conducted by a major research firm. Harris Interactive, which produces the well-known Harris public-opinion poll, brought its expertise to the project, from the development of the survey instrument to the analysis of the results. The talented Harris team includes its leader, Joy Sever; David Bakken; Deirdre Wanat; Oliver Freedman; and Nina Doyle.
Daniel Nasaw at The Wall Street Journal did a superb job helping assemble and fine-tune the vast amount of data in this book. Steve Adler and Roe D'Angelo from The Wall Street Journal provided terrific support. At Simon & Schuster, Elizabeth Stein and Stephanie Fairyington contributed their valuable insights and editing skills to the guidebook. But above all, we want to express our gratitude to the many business school officials and corporate recruiters who once again helped make the survey such a success.
Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
