QS TopMBA Scorecard

With traditional rankings of business schools coming under increasing criticism and top business schools, such as Wharton and Harvard now, apparently, boycotting league tables, the education and careers development group, QS, has developed a revolutionary new tool for selecting an MBA program - TopMBA Scorecard."In recent years, we've seen a proliferation of rankings using widely diverging criteria for judging schools, " says Nunzio Quacquarelli, managing director of QS and editor of the QS Top MBA Career Guide, "and the result seems to be complete confusion. Who is a potential MBA student supposed to believe when three of the most popular rankings " the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and Which MBA : diverge so widely in their results? The problem is made worse by the fact that traditional business school and MBA rankings, whatever methodology they use, are "static" and consequently cannot take into account the individual circumstances, abilities and goals of each potential student." 

QS has invested substantial resources in building an unrivalled database of information on more than 280 of the world's major business schools and their business programmes.
 

Pat Harker, Dean of The Wharton School, speaking in the Fall 2004 edition of TopMBA Career Guide said, "There is a very strong consensus among parties (alumni, faculty and staff of other institutions) I've consulted, that the ranking methodologies are severely flawed. Some people believe that if the rankings help us, who cares if they are flawed or give only a limited view of the school? But we can't have it both ways. We either endorse a defective, inconsistent practice, or we speak out, offer better alternatives for information, and work with the media to enable them to report with more useful, objective data." Yet the management education sector has been obsessed with the ranking of business schools for the last decade. There has been a proliferation of such rankings from publishers such as the Financial Times, BusinessWeek, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, America Economia, to name but a few. These rankings do stoke interest, to the point that their coverage produces some of their top selling editions. But, there is now a growing controversy about whether these rankings provide useful information for MBA applicants, or are misleading and creating a "herd instinct" towards a few schools, which is of no benefit to anyone.

An innovative new web-based approach

In 2005, QS launched an innovative new web-based approach to searching and matching business schools with candidates. QS has listened to feedback from deans and MBA applicants and has responded with its own methodology to improve the process. TopMBA Scorecard is an interactive alternative to standard business school rankings. For the first time, individual users will be able to select the right school based upon their own personal preferences and requirements. QS has invested substantial resources in building an unrivalled database of information on over 280 of the world's major business schools and their business masters programmes. Sophisticated web-based technology allows candidates to build an individual ranking of schools by applying weighting to a wide range of over thirty search criteria such as programme strength, return on investment and specialisations. The system has been tested and approved by the schools. Nuria Guillera of ESADE feels Scorecard is a, "great new tool for applicants interested in business schools." Sandra Zaar from University of Maastricht School of Business adds, "This is an excellent new service from QS. The focus of matching candidates' needs with a school's specific offerings and features is superb."

Meeting personal objectives

Michael Anderer, an aerospace engineer from Austria with an MBA from a top US business school, was the project manager behind this innovative approach to business school matching. Anderer says "Over the last three years, QS has been surveying tens of thousands of MBA applicants in 30 different countries and it is clear that many of them are being confused by rankings. Large numbers are identifying the top handful of schools as their preferred destination, yet when they specify their selection criteria for an MBA, there are often clear mismatches in terms of suitability, eligibility, local versus international career objectives, teaching methods and other personal selection criteria. Rankings are not enabling candidates to make a detailed match. As a result, top schools are having to wade through hundreds, sometimes thousands, of unsuitable applications, or worse still, offering places to candidates who were ultimately looking for a different learning experience." For example, QS - research of MBA applicants has shown that a school's reputation with recruiters is always one of the most important selection criteria. The strength of reputation has consequently become one of the key assessment factors in Scorecard.  Many applicants are interested in selecting schools with specialist strengths in particular fields. For example, marketing is one of the most popular specialisations sought by MBA applicants. Drawing on TopMBA.com's International Recruiter Survey, we can identify the schools most recognised for their marketing departments. 

So far, over 100,000 potential MBAs around the world have made use of Scorecard as part of their search for the right school, and programme with almost uniformly positive results. Deepa Jain, for example, was one of the first wave of students to make use of Scorecard in India. "With so much information available on the internet and in established league tables, it's very easy to become confused about which school to choose. Because Scorecard looks at what's specifically important to you, it focuses on the schools and programmes that exactly match what you are looking for." Nunzio Quacquarelli summarises: "Our aim is for TopMBA Scorecard to enable candidates to draw up a short-list of schools which meet their personal objectives, rather than having to rely on someone else's subjective ranking. In this way, when they attend a business school fair such as the QS World MBA Tour, they will be more informed and be able to spend more time with the schools, which directly meet their needs. We feel we are filling an information gap in the MBA market-place and that Scorecard will improve the fit between applying candidates and the profile of schools. It's no exaggeration to say that TopMBA Scorecard makes traditional "static" rankings outmoded." For more information visit QS TopMBA Scorecard