By
Sigrid Koehler
Business Journalist, Germany

Rankings and Reputation

As this site points out on the Rankings page of the Advice section, rankings are a fact of life. There are many of them, and, if interpreted with caution they can be a valuable source of information for those aiming to take an MBA and still deciding where to do so.

Probably the most comprehensive listing of rankings is provided on this site, which also offers its own unique ‘super rankings’ - so this is a good place to start. So what does this data tell us? How do we use it to make our choice of program and place?

In general, rankings are regarded as an indication of the prominence and/or the prestige of a program or School. Of course Schools would like to be both - i.e. well known (‘prominent’) and to have a good reputation (‘prestige’). It could argued that there is little point in being one without the other – i.e. known but not known to be good, or good but not known to be. This is important to the Schools and also to you, so be careful with the rankings. Don’t take just one, look at several and see how the programs or Schools that you are interested in rank, then you can be fairly sure that you are getting some indication of both prominence and prestige. This is likely to be important to you, as you will want future employers to know of, and to have a high regard for the program that you followed. In other words, you want to choose a program and School with a high reputation.

But not everyone can get into the Schools with the highest reputation, so what do you do then? Don’t think that because the program/School that you are considering does not appear in any of the rankings it is no good. There are several thousand programs in the world, so they cannot all be covered by the rankings. Some parts of the world are better covered than most, e.g. the USA and Europe where there are many and frequent published rankings. Also, some types of programs don’t get covered by the rankings, most notably distance and on-line programs.

So, if your program or School is not in any of the rankings, how important is this? Well, as we have said, to some extent it depends on where it is and what it is. If you are in the USA or Europe and you are looking at a conventional full time, part time or executive program, and it is not in any lf the rankings, then it is possible that you might need later to explain to someone why you chose it. There could be good reasons of course, e.g. it was in your town, easy to get to, the program started at the right time for you etc. If you are in another part of the world it may be less of a problem as employers will not have such a clear impression of the ‘ranking’ repute of Schools.

If you are thinking of a Program/School which is not ‘ranked’ then look for other indications of quality – especially its accreditation. If a future employer does not know a School, then the fact that it is accredited by a reputable accrediting organization will help you demonstrate that it was a good place for you to go.

But there are very may accrediting organizations for both programs and Schools. What accreditation is important for you? Again this may be a geographical matter. If you have taken your MBA at a School in a different region, or more so in a different country, to that in which you are seeking to work, then it is likely that an employer will not know much about, or even have heard of your School if it is not ‘ranked’, so its accreditation will be all they have to go on. In this case, accreditation by one of the major International organizations will be important. If you take a program locally and stay in that area – then accreditation by a local/regional organization may be OK – as it will be known. So - by all means take your program at the local School if you intend to stay in that area, as there will be obvious reasons for your having done so, but be careful if you intend to work elsewhere, and have good reasons, and ranking or accreditation information to help you explain your choice.

So – finally:
Choose the program at the School with the highest reputation - if it’s appropriate to your needs and you can get in.
If your chosen program/School does not appear in any of the rankings, then unless you are in a place where rankings are not common, or yours is an unusual program, or yours is the local School or the only one in the region - be prepared to justify your choice.