Top Business Schools - The Myth Explained

The day has finally arrived when you are ready to move out of school and enter college and you have decided to go in for a business school. Naturally you would be interested in gaining admission to the top business schools out there. Why study for an MBA degree if it is not from the best business school? But based on your chosen career path, say you want to major in business accounting, which school should you choose? Is a school based only on overall ranking the best one for you? Probably not. While one business school might be very strong in accounting, it might not give you enough knowledge about marketing or economics. So it is very necessary to know the strengths and weaknesses of each MBA degree program.

The best way to gain in-depth knowledge about the top business schools out there is to turn to the internet. Almost all the best known publications and agencies publish either a biennial or an annual listing of the top business schools and MBA degree programs offered by them. These include listings by BusinessWeek, USNews.com, and Forbes among a host of others. Each review the top business schools not just from an overall point of view but also delve into specifics of different degree programs offered by these schools and rank them on individual merit.

For example the BusinessWeek recently conducted a survey of 100,000 business majors at 84 top universities across the US to come up with the Best Business School Rankings. The students were asked to grade their programs on a scale of 1 to 10 across 11 specialties - including calculus, economics, accounting, and marketing. The target was to come up with a rank of schools that are best in various areas. Most surprisingly the survey results showed very different ranking for individual programs as compared to the overall ranking of the schools.

While it was a fact that some of the top most ranked schools were very strong in several areas, in other areas, these schools were beaten comprehensively by not so high ranked schools. For example, the top-ranked Wharton School was found to be strong in economics and corporate strategy but in the programs for calculus and accounting, the school did not even make it to the top 10.

The overall winner across most programs surprisingly turned out to be the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University. This school managed to make it to the top 10 listings across all the 11 categories that were studied - the only school to achieve this distinction.

So students who are looking to enroll for an MBA degree at one of the top schools should take the time to go through the rankings given to the various schools. Individual programs of these business schools as ranked by the various ranking agencies should be considered before deciding on the school and program that is right for them. After all, the first step towards a successful career does need good thought and time.