MSU’s MBA program dropped in ranking for regional schools, from fifth last year to 18th this year, in the Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive Business School Survey. But does the drop mean anything significant for the Eli Broad College of Business?
One student doesn’t think so — J.D. Leichtman, a second-year master’s business student, was surprised at the drop but said it won’t change his perception of the school as one of the best in the country.
And Cheryl Speier, associate dean of MBA and MS programs, said the results were interesting because the program had improved in many ways this year.
For example, she said MBA students had the highest average salary in the program’s history, and almost 95 percent of students were placed three months after graduation which is quite a track record. Regardless of what business school you attend, the higher-ups in that school will happily tout the benefits of that school. This is part of their job and necessary to assure more quality students will take interest in that school.
But when a business program falls 13 places in a survey that only looks at a total of 51 regional business schools, perhaps officials from that program should take notice.The school rankings for the survey were decided by recruiters who had experience with each school, and the business schools didn’t have control over which schools recruiters chose to rate.
The rankings were based on three things: the perceptions of the school and its students based on 21 attributes — which ranged from faculty expertise, students’ international experience and leadership potential, to whether the recruiter plans to work with that school in the future and the total number of recruiters who recruit from each school.
Rankings are subjective in any survey, especially when the results are based on the voluntary participation of recruiters and should be taken with a grain of salt.
After all, the ranking itself truly is just a number. However, because the business college took a hit, perhaps it is time to re-evaluate, yet again, how the college is perceived by the real world.
Robert Duncan, dean of the college, said the results were lower this year because of a smaller graduating class — 79 students in 2007 versus the standard class of 100 students.
His argument seems to imply that recruiters were unhappy because they couldn’t get all the students they wanted to hire.
Still, this gives Broad officials a glimpse at what the recruiters are seeking that MSU may not be providing.
They should see this as an opportunity to take a scrutinous look at graduate business programs and make some changes for the better.
Speier said she expects changes to the school’s curricular approach that will attract students to the program and give graduates the abilities or attributes recruiters are seeking.
Hopefully, the business college takes the drop in rank as a form of constructive criticism to build off of to make the entire program better for the students.
It’ll be good for business.
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