B-School Rankings-A Perspective

The latest topic to hit the campus apart from the discussion on Brazil's exit from the WC, is the Business Today/India Today (July 16, 2006) Survey B-School Rankings.

The survey sure has thrown up surprises, with Symbiosis being ranked as No.4 ahead of the lower IIMs(If I may use the word "lower"). There has been a lot of hue and cry with SIBM taking the Symbiosis cake away!! (For the records, scmhrd did not participate in the survey.)
Agreed Symbiosis is a bigger brand than the individual institutes and somewhere down the line there is a bit of confusion among the junta with respect to the colleges under the banner!!

SIBM and SCMHRD the two institutes stand out in terms of education, SIBM more on account of the alumni and the history while SCMHRD in a short span has come a long way.

SIBM has indeed,as expected started shouting from all available roof tops on the new ranking! {Times of India Advertisement-Pune Edition-9th July 2006), and why not any B-School apart from the IIMs, XL and FMS does that to attract the Best talent.

On the Sidelines, PaGaLGuY.com, a portal boasting of 65000+ registered users amongst the MBA aspirants of India has an online voluntary survey on its home page:- and the results?..

Which B-School Ranking Survey you Believe in?

Business Today-22.70%
Business World-22.80%
None-----------46.20%
Outlook---------8.30%

*Sample Size of 1626 people who chose to answer the question.

A few things that come out of such surveys.

1. The Best judge of any B-School are the students that it is catering to :- So talk to B-School students for their views on aspects like Curriculum, Admissions, Teaching, Placements etc.

2. Leading magazines have always given ranking at this time of the year, point is they sell by creating news, but how many do actually buy the rankings is the question!!

3. The small sample of 1626 at PaGaLGuY.com and results of which I have put up is also a good pointer!!

4. With respect to "Top of the Minds" perception, The IIMs, come what may will rule the roost, atleast for some years, news will be created when they will be dethroned.

5. Fact is all B-School students know where they stand vis-a-vis the other once they are on campus and these comparisons happen at many important points during the two years at the B-School.

6. Its important to note how the recruiters perceive this survey apart from the potential aspirants, a clue, on the potential aspirants views-(http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/other-exams-xat-fms-jmet/16694-business-today-2006-rankings-they.html) This discussion thread was in the end locked by the moderator after the discussion got nasty.

Instead of drawing up conclusions, I decided to set the minds reading this piece of blog post, rolling......conjuring up interpretations.