| The day has finally arrived when you are ready to | | | | to grade their programs on a scale of 1 to 10 across |
| move out of school and enter college and you have | | | | 11 specialties - including calculus, economics, |
| decided to go in for a business school. Naturally you | | | | accounting, and marketing. The target was to come |
| would be interested in gaining admission to the top | | | | up with a rank of schools that are best in various |
| business schools out there. Why study for an MBA | | | | areas. Most surprisingly the survey results showed |
| degree if it is not from the best business school? But | | | | very different ranking for individual programs as |
| based on your chosen career path, say you want to | | | | compared to the overall ranking of the schools. |
| major in business accounting, which school should you | | | | While it was a fact that some of the top most |
| choose? Is a school based only on overall ranking the | | | | ranked schools were very strong in several areas, in |
| best one for you? Probably not. While one business | | | | other areas, these schools were beaten |
| school might be very strong in accounting, it might | | | | comprehensively by not so high ranked schools. For |
| not give you enough knowledge about marketing or | | | | example, the top-ranked Wharton School was found |
| economics. So it is very necessary to know the | | | | to be strong in economics and corporate strategy |
| strengths and weaknesses of each MBA degree | | | | but in the programs for calculus and accounting, the |
| program. | | | | school did not even make it to the top 10. |
| The best way to gain in-depth knowledge about the | | | | The overall winner across most programs surprisingly |
| top business schools out there is to turn to the | | | | turned out to be the Goizueta School of Business at |
| internet. Almost all the best known publications and | | | | Emory University. This school managed to make it to |
| agencies publish either a biennial or an annual listing of | | | | the top 10 listings across all the 11 categories that |
| the top business schools and MBA degree programs | | | | were studied - the only school to achieve this |
| offered by them. These include listings by | | | | distinction. |
| BusinessWeek, USNews.com, and Forbes among a | | | | So students who are looking to enroll for an MBA |
| host of others. Each review the top business schools | | | | degree at one of the top schools should take the |
| not just from an overall point of view but also delve | | | | time to go through the rankings given to the various |
| into specifics of different degree programs offered | | | | schools. Individual programs of these business schools |
| by these schools and rank them on individual merit. | | | | as ranked by the various ranking agencies should be |
| For example the BusinessWeek recently conducted a | | | | considered before deciding on the school and |
| survey of 100,000 business majors at 84 top | | | | program that is right for them. After all, the first step |
| universities across the US to come up with the Best | | | | towards a successful career does need good thought |
| Business School Rankings. The students were asked | | | | and time. |