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Scorecard: Matching candidate’s objectives to what schools offer
Deciding to do an MBA is one of the most important decisions an aspiring business leader can make. Many want to find a way to get ahead in their careers, others are looking at positions internally and externally that say ‘MBA required’ or ‘MBA preferred’ and thinking how they can elevate themselves to be ready for those positions. However that decision is only half of the battle. The toughest, and perhaps the most interesting part, is yet to come.
Business schools are surprisingly varied. Some people believe you just ‘do an MBA’. But that’s not the case. Business schools have MBA programs with certain sets of specializations; faculties with specific interests and expertise; graduates who, on average, boost their salaries by a certain percentage after graduation; and international reputations that vary by country and industry.
Finding the right business school among the thousands around the world can be quite a task and the MBA candidate is advised to take a lot of time and effort selecting the best school to suit their interests and the practicalities of their lives. But what’s the best way to do this?
Rankings
Rankings have existed for a long time and the likelihood is, given the public taste for them as some kind of quality indicator, they are here to stay. However, it is becoming clear that traditional, static rankings are only of a superficial benefit. Can it really be that a school that tops the FT rankings for example, is top for all of the criteria an MBA candidate considers when choosing a business school?
It seems unlikely. Research released in January 2008 bears this out. In the QS TopMBA Global Recruiters’ Top 100 Business Schools, in which MBA and careers experts QS canvassed the opinions of 489 MBA employers worldwide about the schools they recruit from by specialization, Harvard Business School tops the list for the Strategy specialization. Yet Harvard comes only eighth in the list for Operations Management. Likewise INSEAD (International Management), Wharton (Finance), Kellogg (Marketing), MIT Sloan (Information Management) and IE Business School (Entrepreneurship) top their respective tables and thus cement their reputations for those seeking a career in these specializations.
All top business schools are trying to differentiate themselves accordingly, to establish a niche for themselves and then spend significant energies promoting their modus operandi and their unique sales points. This is why most of them visit countries all round the globe with the QS World MBA Tour.
Personalized Rankings
As candidates find themselves increasingly in the driving seat about their business careers, and with the availability of huge amounts of information on the Internet, the trend towards personalized rankings has continued in recent years. MBA candidates no longer want to know where the best schools are – we can’t all go to Harvard, Wharton, London or INSEAD – but what are the best schools for them.
In response to this growing demand for personal information, QS created the world’s first personalized business school ranking tool, QS Search and Scorecard (www.topmba.com/scorecard). This is a unique online system allowing aspiring MBAs to search for a business school that suits their personal needs and preferences, a free and unique tool kit to personalize and refine business school selection. Partnered with Washington Post, Toronto Star and Mezun (Turkey), QS Search and Scorecard allows candidates to:
· narrow down a b-school search according to their own criteria
· Avoid the restrictions of traditional ranking systems
· Search more than 350 of the world’s top business schools
There is no substitute for personal contact, and nobody will claim that Search and Scorecard answers all of you’re a candidate’s questions, but what it does allow, using changing criteria and usable several times, is for the reader to start seeing the same business schools appearing time and again, allowing them to create their personal shortlist. From that shortlist the candidate will visit the QS World MBA Tour or, even more impressively, QS TopMBA Connect 1.2.1 to meet the schools face to face, getting to know the school culture, what makes it tick and if it is really the kind of place they see themselves studying at.
