Business Week Full time What sources of data does Bloomberg Businessweek use to rank MBA programs? There are three main sources of data: a student survey, a survey of corporate recruiters, and an intellectual capital rating. How are the various factors weighted? The three most recent student surveys are first combined for a total student score that counts toward 45% of the final ranking. (The current survey counts for 50% of the total student score. The two previous surveys count for 25% each.) The three most recent recruiter surveys are combined for a total recruiter score that contributes another 45%. (The current survey counts for 50% of the total recruiter score. The two previous surveys count for 25% each.) The intellectual capital rating contributes 10% to the final ranking. How is the student survey conducted? The student survey is conducted online. Using e-mail addresses supplied by the programs, Bloomberg Businessweek (with the help of Cambria Consulting) contacts students and directs them to a survey site where they can complete the survey. Bloomberg Businessweek will send out several reminders to ensure an adequate response rate. The survey consists of about 45 questions that ask students to rate their programs on teaching quality, career services, alumni network, and recruiting efforts, among other things. Using the average answer for each of the questions and each question's standard deviation, we calculate a student survey score for each school. How is the recruiter survey conducted? The recruiter survey is also conducted online. Starting with e-mail addresses supplied by the programs,bloomberg Businessweek creates a list of companies recruiting from the programs and identifies a single high-level recruiting contact at each company. This means that not every recruiter supplied by every school will be contacted. In some cases, such as when a company maintains a separate recruiting organization for Europe, more than one recruiting contact at the company will be asked to complete the survey.then, with the help of Cambria Consulting, Bloomberg Businessweek contacts the company representatives and directs them to a survey site where they can complete the survey. Bloomberg Businessweek will send out several reminders or call recruiters to ensure an adequate response rate. Every company tells us how many MBAs it hired in the previous two years and which schools it actively recruits from, and it ranks up to 20 top schools. To calculate each school's recruiter score, we first use the rankings to determine each school's recruiter points, awarding 20 points for every No. 1 ranking, 19 points for every No. 2 mention, and so on. We then calculate a numerator, which consists of the sum of each school's points from each specific recruiter multiplied by the number of MBAs hired by that specific recruiter. We then calculate a denominator, which is the sum of the number of times each school is identified as a recruiting location multiplied by the number of MBAs hired by each recruiter who mentions it. Finally, for each school, we divide the sum of its numerators by the sum of its denominators.
How is the intellectual capital score determined? Bloomberg Businessweek scours 20 top academic journals for articles published by each school's faculty, reviewing all editions published in the previous five years. The journals are The Harvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, Operations Research, Information Systems Research, Journal of Finance, American Economic Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Marketing Research, Strategic Management Journal, Accounting Review, Academy of Management Journal, Production & Operations Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Consumer Research, Review of Financial Studies, Administrative Science Quarterly and Marketing Science. Extended articles receive three points; short articles receive one point. We also check The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg Businessweek for reviews of books written by the schools' professors, awarding 5 points for each one. The two tallies are combined and then adjusted for faculty size by dividing the total number of points by the number of fulltime faculty at the school. The list of journals is reviewed each year and suggestions for additions are considered. http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/faq/index.html
Business Week Part Time Programs What sources of data does BusinessWeek use to rank part-time MBA programs? Our methodology has three elements, all derived from two main sources of data: a student survey and a school survey. The three elements are: 1. The student survey: This comprises approximately 50 equally weighted questions measuring every aspect of student satisfaction with the MBA experience from teaching to course content to career outcomes as well as additional questions about the person completing the survey. 2. Goals Measure: Through a series of questions in the student survey, we determine the percentage of respondents in three distinct categories who say their MBA program was "completely" or "somewhat" important in achieving their goals. The categories are "career advancers" who are seeking career advancement with their current employer; "job switchers" who are seeking career advancement with a new employer in the same industry; and "career changers" who want to change industries, functional areas, or both. 3. Academic Quality: This consists of six equally weighted measures: average GMAT scores for parttime MBA students, average work experience for part-time MBA students, the percentage of all teachers in the part-time MBA program who are tenured faculty, average class size in core business classes, total number of business electives available to part-time MBA students, and the completion rate for students in the part-time MBA program. This information is supplied to BusinessWeek by the schools themselves, when they complete the school survey. How are the various factors weighted? The student survey counts for 40% of the final ranking. The goals measure counts for 30%. And the academic quality ranking counts for 30%. Each of the six component parts of the academic quality ranking contributes 5% to the final ranking. http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/nov2007/bs2007114_519355.htm
US News - Business School Rankings Methodology Quality Assessment (weighted by.40) Peer Assessment Score (.25) In the fall of 2010, business school deans and directors of accredited master's programs in business were asked to rate programs on a scale from "marginal" (1) to "outstanding" (5). Those individuals who did not know enough about a school to evaluate it fairly were asked to mark "don't know." A school's score is the average of all the respondents who rated it. Responses of "don't know" counted neither for nor against a school. About 44 percent of those surveyed responded. Recruiter Assessment Score (.15) In the fall of 2010, corporate recruiters and company contacts from M.B.A. programs previously ranked by U.S. News were asked to rate all full-time programs on a scale from "marginal" (1) to "outstanding" (5). Those individuals who did not know enough about a school to evaluate it fairly were asked to mark "don't know." A school's score is the average of all the respondents who rated it. Responses of "don't know" counted neither for nor against a school. About 21 percent of those surveyed responded. For the purpose of calculating this year's rankings, the two most recent years' recruiters' survey results were averaged and are weighed by.15. Placement Success (weighted by.35) Mean Starting Salary and Bonus (.14) The average starting salary and bonus of 2010 graduates of a full-time master's program in business. Salary figures are based on the number of graduates who reported data. The mean signing bonus is weighted by the proportion of those graduates who reported a bonus, because not everyone who reported a base salary figure reported a signing bonus. Employment Rates for Full-time Master's Program in Business Graduates The employment rate for 2010 graduates of a full-time master's program in business. Those not seeking jobs or for whom no jobseeking information is available are excluded. If the proportions of graduates for whom no job-seeking information is available and who are not seeking jobs are high, then the information is not used in calculating the rankings. Employment rates at graduation (.07) and three months after graduation (.14) are used in the ranking model. Student Selectivity (weighted by.25) Mean GMAT Scores (.1625) The average Graduate Management Admission Test score of students entering the full-time program in fall 2010. Scores on the test range from 200 to 800. Mean Undergraduate GPA (.075) The average undergraduate grade-point average of those students entering the full-time program in fall 2010. Acceptance Rate (.0125) The percent of applicants to the full-time program in fall 2010 who were accepted. Overall Rank: Data were standardized about their means, and standardized scores were weighted, totaled, and rescaled so that the top school received 100; others received their percentage of the top score. In order to be ranked, a full-time M.B.A. program had to have 20 or more graduates who were seeking employment in 2010. For a school to have its employment data considered in the ranking model, at least 50 percent of its 2010 full-time M.B.A. graduates needed to be seeking work. M.B.A. programs that did not meet the employment criteria are listed as Unranked (see below for explanation of Unranked)
US News - Part-Time M.B.A. Program Rankings U.S. News's part-time M.B.A. ranking is based solely on a fall 2010 peer assessment survey that asked business school deans and M.B.A. program directors at each of the nation's 295 part-time M.B.A. programs to rate the other part-time programs on a 5-point scale, from marginal (1) to outstanding (5). Forty-one percent of those surveyed responded. Programs were ranked based solely on their average peer assessment score. U.S. News defines a part-time M.B.A. program as being at an AACSB-accredited school with at least 20 students enrolled part time in both fall 2009 and fall 2010 based on the enrollment reported to U.S. News. A part-time M.B.A. program had to meet the two-year enrollment and accreditation standard to be included in the ranking. In the parttime M.B.A. program rankings, programs with an average peer assessment score of equal to or greater than 2.0 are numerically ranked. All those with average peer assessment scores of less than 2.0 are listed in alphabetical order as Rank Not Published by U.S. News. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/2011/03/14/business-school-rankingsmethodology-2012