Forum: School selection (4 Comments)

Rankings important?

  • Posted by - Chrissie - on 19 July 2010 - 10:11pm

    How important are the rankings? Should I go for a MiM which is in no ranking but lower in price or is that always a bad decision?

    • Posted by - gianpaolo tepedino - on 27 November 2010 - 3:18pm

      Hi Guys,
      In my opinion and what I have seen is the following:

      1. For some companies rankings are very important: there are hundreds of universities that called themselves TOP, and I think you would agree with me that NOT all of them are even close to being TOP.

      2. If your final goal is to work for a company at the end of your master (I mean you are not planning to start something on your own), you might be even interested on checking out the "careers department" some schools have. They can for sure provide you with statistics about the companies that are usually looking for candidates in that school.

      3. I found myself applying for some companies that were very much aware about the school, but the interviewer did not have a clue about what the MIM progran was all about. They were paying more attention to the "quality certificate" of the name of your school than to the program you studied. On the other hand there were some other companies, such as P&G, where they were more interested on MIMs students + name of the school than on MBAs or other managerial programs because of their junior and highly educated profiles.

      4. One word: network!. One of the most valuable assets a B-School should provide you with is their alumni network and the people you will study with. People that share a similar view about how business should be carried out, a sort of family that can provide you with opportunities, people that can help you specially in your first professional step out of the school.

      In addition to this, I would like to support mAtty_goal, I think is a great idea to ask if they can let you attend to a lecture, in that way you check the quality of the professors, the environment, the school's facilities, and how diverse is the people in the classroom. The school can be number one in the world, but if you don't feel comfortable studying there, then is worthless for your learning process and your career.

      Gianpaolo Tepedino.

    • Posted by - mAtty_goal - on 26 July 2010 - 4:52pm

      I think it's not only rankings that matters. Best would be if you visit the school and see whether you like it there. Perhaps you can take part in a lecture if you ask.

      • Posted by - Chrissie - on 26 July 2010 - 4:57pm

        But whatabout employers? Do they care about rankings? I mean... do they really care of a school is ranked nr 77 or 49?