Who doesn’t love rankings? They help us size things up, figure out what/who the best of the best are, and what/who to point our fingers and laugh at. More importantly, rankings give us something to talk about because everyone has a different opinion on how things stack up.
Forbes recently released their 2010 Business School rankings in which they ranked the schools by ROI after 5 years. It’s an interesting methodology, especially if you consider the bottomline for some students who pursue an MBA: how much more money will I be making after school. I think this ranking is great if you’re looking for the school that will give you the best bang for your buck. For me though, Forbe’s ranking only provides a nice place to view a compilation of stats. I’m not sure you can convince many people, especially in southeren California, that BYU (16), is a better school than UCLA (19).
Just for fun, I compared the rankings of the schools I’m interested in from the Forbes with USA Today’s College Football Coaches poll. Here’s how things shook out.
From Forbes:
Texas – 11
UCLA – 19
USC – 32
ND – 38
UCI – 58
From USA Today:
Texas – 2
USC – 4
ND – 23
UCI – No respect (ranked higher than the Bruins – Anteaters are undefeated)
UCLA – Even less respect
Ha! It’s close in order if you disregard the actual rank. I might as well replace the Forbes poll with the USA Today poll. The bottomline, take these business school rankings with a grain of salt. They’re not the best way to figure out which school is the best for you.