Those Who Hire MBAs Rank Top Business Schools Differently Editor's Note: What follows is an article that appeared in The Wall Corporations Rank the Top 21 Street Journal on October 11, 1985 Surveyed companies' overall preferences among MBA programs: about how business schools are ranked by those who hire business TOTAL TOTAL school graduates. The story is SCHOOL POINTS* SCHOOL POINTS* reprinted by permission of The Wall 1 Northwestern (Kellogg) 206 12 UCLA 52 Street Journal. © Dow Jones 8c Co., 2 Pennsylvania (Wharton) 192 13 Carnegie-Mellon 47 Inc. All rights reserved. t 3 Harvard 170 14 California (Berkeley) ~37 By ANNE MACKAY-SMITH 4 Columbia 124 15 Cornell 36 Staff Reporter of 5 Chicago 100 16 New York University 32 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 6 Michigan (Ann Arbor) 98 17 M4.T. (Sloan) ~27 Ask business schools to rate one 7 Indiana 83 18 North Carolina ~24 another and the results never vary: 8 Virginia (Colgate Darden) 82 19 Texas (Austin) 21 Harvard or Stanford finish No. 1 9 Stanford 8J_ 20 Minnesota "71 or No. 2. 10 Duke (Fuqua) 69 21 Yale 6 But ask the companies that hire business graduates to rate those 11 Dartmouth (Amos Tuck) 56 programs and the answers may be *Schools received five points for a first-place vote, four points for second, etc. surprising. Source: Brecker &f Merryman Inc. Surveyed executives at 134 national companies recently named "MBAs tend to leave after one as a starting point for companies to the Kellogg School of Management to two years, and emphasize make their selections. Respondents at Northwestern University as their the short run." were free to list any additional choice for producing the best school at which the company MBA graduates. The University of Respondents' Profiles recruits and hires. No other schools, Pennsylvania's Wharton School Brecker & Merryman Inc., the however, ended up ranking higher finished second. Harvard was New York management consulting than the original 21. ranked third, and Stanford's company that conducted the study, Because companies were asked Graduate School of Business sent questionnaires to 250 of the to limit their responses to schools finished ninth. largest industrial and service that they have worked with, some Moreover, the executives had companies in the country. The 134 smaller schools may have suffered some harsh comments about that responded hire many MBAs; in the rankings, says David Bloom, their new hires. Many said eight of the 134, for example, each a senior consultant at Brecker & business-school graduates start work hired more than 100 graduates in Merryman. The graduates of such with inflated expectations about the 1983-84 academic year. The schools, he says, might simply be salary, responsibility and their respondents include 15 of the less familiar to a large number of potential for advancement in the 20 largest U.S. banks, the Big companies. company. Three auto makers, five major Surveys of business schools "Some feel they can demand energy companies and leading generally attract wide attention $50,000-plus a year and be CEO investment banking, accounting because competition to enter the in two years," one respondent said. and consulting firms. top programs and for hiring top "We receive complaints (within In the questionnaire, Brecker & graduates is fierce. This year, the company) of prima donnas," Merryman listed 21 business schools for example, Harvard had 5,371 another noted, while a third said, applications for a class of 785. 2 Employers, meanwhile, are now paying average starting salaries of $35,000 to $40,000 to graduates of the best schools, up $3,000 to $10,000 from two years ago. Although the sample in the Brecker & Merryman study is small, Dividend information from such a "confined Volume XVII, No.. 1 January, 1986 universe" may be as reliable as a much larger survey, says Michael Kagay, a pollster at Louis Harris & Business and the Press: A Strategic View 4 Associates Inc. "If the companies' By William K, Rukcysei, Kditor, fortune Maga/ine opinions differ from those of the A distinguished journalist discusses coverage of business in the "media." schools', that deserves to be known Global Blue! Keep in Touch 9 and discussed and further studied," An introduction to our special section on "connectedness" in which we he says. explore some oi the important relationships the School maintains with its Most respondents said they business friends, its students, and alumni, as well as some of the special wavs based their opinions on graduates' our students and alumni are linked with each other. on-the-job performance; 90% said they were directly responsible for Global Blue! by Nelson Hyde, MBA W5 10 MBA hiring at their companies. The class of'85 has instigated a campaign which will take the Michigan In ratings of specific skills, Business School connection around the globe, different schools came out on top. Speakers from the World 14 Carnegie Mellon graduates, ranked A sampling from some of the many speakers from the business world who 13th overall, were rated first on come here to share their knowledge and experience with students. "knowledge of operations/ Pass It On 18 production management." An album of pictures taken at commencement of family groups where alumni Massachusetts Institute of of the Business School or the University are celebrating the graduation from Technology's Sloan School of the Business School of a daughter or son, brother or sister. Management, ranked 17th, was first in computer technology and Aiming for the Fast Track 23 information skills. For "best value" The 9th annual alumni day sponsored by the Black Business Students to employers, in terms of what Association was a big success. graduates produce in relation The (Executive) Family Album 26 to their salaries, Northwestern, Two nostalgic pictures of the PUEP class and faculty of 1953. Indiana and Michigan ranked as the top three. Harvard and Stanford "Some of Us Are Even Humble" by Mike Malony 28 climbed back to No. 1 and No. 2 on A second year MBA student writes about the 1985 Graduate Business leadership ability, entrepreneurial Conference of business student leaders from all oyer the country. skills and executive education. Professor of Finance Thomas Gies Dies 31 Many respondents said new Anion:; Ourselves 32 graduates are overpaid. Said one: "MBA salaries outpace increases Class Notes 42 within our organization. I'm BBA Mom and MBA Daughter Talk About How Times Have Changed 56 not sure we're getting what we are Letters 59 paying for." Many employers also suggested that people need more About the Cover work experience before entering Our cover shows the Global Blue! celebration that students pulled together graduate schools and need better during exam week last spring. The energy and enthusiasm generated was placement counseling before they inspiring, and Hale Auditorium (alter all those balloons) will probably never leave. The survey notes: "Many be the same again! Photo by Virginia Geren. respondents couple immaturity and lack of work experience with (MBA Dean: Gilbert R. Whitaker Jr. graduates') inflated sense of their Assistant Dean: Anneke de Bruyn Overseth own skills, potential and ability." Editor: Prnigle Smith 'Producing Value' Editorial Assistant: Kent Grayson The dean of Northwestern's Copyright Q 1986 by the Michigan Business School Kellogg school, Donald P. Jacobs, Printed by 'Ihe Unrversity of Michigan Printing Services. This publication is disagrees with the criticisms of made possible through the generosity of private donations. Continued on page 59 3 stand before you as a member I should not hesitate a moment to of its way to avoid it, but at least of an unloved minority. I am a prefer the latter." The newspaper equally because editors considered journalist — or, to state the problem folk are less likely to remind you business too mundane to merit the with full accusatory force, a media that Jefferson also said this: attention of cultivated minds and person. To compound the offense, "The man who never looks into a too boring to appeal to the common I cover business. newspaper is better informed than herd. And so, in the war of words There's a saying that it's a mistake he who reads them, inasmuch as between journalists and their to argue with a man who buys ink he who knows nothing is nearer the subjects, business leaders generally by the barrel. Be that as it may, truth than he whose mind is filled kept to the sidelines. journalists have generally had a bad with falsehoods and errors." In the past twenty years, however, press, and it didn't start with Herb And Jefferson never even the opportunities for business to Schmertz — the poet laureate of watched the evening news. be offended by what it reads and Mobil Oil — or Jesse Helms. Through most of American hears about itself in the media have Consider the views of that most history, business escaped the multiplied, for the very good sympathetic observer of American sustained scrutiny of the general reason that coverage of business has institutions, Alexis de Tocqueville. press — partly because it went out multiplied. The main impetus "The facility with which newspapers can be established produces a multitude of them," wrote de Editor's Note: Here we bring you Tocqueville; "but as the competition prevents any considerable profit, the text of the eighteenth annual persons of much capacity are rarely William K. Mclnally Memorial led to engage in these undertakings. Lecture, established to honor the . The journalists of the United memory of former Regent William States are generally in a very K. Mclnally. This year, the lecture humble position, with a scanty was given by William S. Rukeyser, education and a vulgar turn of managing editor of Fortune mind.