Lifestyle MBA Rankings Place Top Business Schools in New Light: MBA News

How often do top business schools post campus pictures of unhappy students getting caught in the rain? This was the question asked by the Financial Times (FT) when announcing its new survey of MBA alumni, grading aspects of life at business school away from the academic experience and future job prospects on offer.

For its alternative MBA rankings, the FT sourced the opinion of over 1,000 MBA alumni respondents from top business schools across the world - all graduates of the class of 2010.

For overall experience, MBA alumni were largely pleased with their lot, as none of the top business schools with a sizeable number of respondents scored lower than 8.5 out of 10 in this area. Elsewhere, however, the survey threw up some interesting results.

Mixed reaction from UK MBA alumni

MBA alumni of top business schools in London were not impressed with the cost and quality of accommodation available in the UK capital during their course, with Imperial College Business School and London Business School scoring lowest here. At the other end of the spectrum two Indian schools, Indian School of Business and IIM Ahmedabad, came in the top five for accommodation with Atlanta’s Goizueta at Emory University placing first for the quality of accommodation on offer.   

Another UK city had the misfortune of coming bottom of the ‘food’ category, with MBA alumni of Manchester Business School giving the city’s options in this regard the lowest average score to be found. Top of this category was Switzerland’s IMD. 

It wasn’t all bad news for the UK, however. Cambridge Judge came out top for ‘general environment’ ahead of UCLA Anderson, with both schools also featuring in the top five for social life.

The alternative MBA rankings found alumni of NYU Stern to be the most pleased with the alumni parties and clubs on offer. NYU Stern also scored highest for its ‘overseas trips’ available.

MBA alumni asked what needs changing most

As well as asking MBA alumni to rate their business schools in specific categories, the FT also asked what they would most like to change about their alma mater.

Here, career services and costs were most commonly cited as areas for improvement. But, across European and North American schools, many felt the weather was the one thing they would most like to have changed.

A clear preference for urban hubs was professed by MBA alumni, with satisfaction levels pertaining to location lower for those based outside of city centers, while respondents of second-tier schools thought that better branding would be beneficial for their career prospects.

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