London Business School Leads 2016 Bloomberg BusinessWeek International MBA Rankings
London Business School (LBS) climbed to the very top spot on Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s ‘Best International Business Schools of 2016‘ list, released yesterday, up a notch from last year’s second-place showing. INSEAD, which has campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi, followed right behind, inching up from number three last year to second place this year. The United Kingdom’s other powerhouse business schools, Oxford’s Saïd Business School and Cambridge’s Judge Business School, fell in line at third and fourth respectively, representing a three-spot jump for Saïd over last year and a four-spot jump for Judge. Spain’s IESE also experienced gains year over year, sidling up two spots from last year’s seventh place to round out this year’s top five.
But as some schools inched up, others fell—most notably Western University’s Ivey Business School in Canada, which plummeted from the number one spot last year to 10th in 2016. Spain’s IE Business School and Switzerland’s International Institute for Management Development (IMD) each slipped two spots, to sixth and seventh this year. But Italy’s SDA Bocconi School of Management sauntered up four spots from 12th last year to land comfortably within the top 10 this year, at number eight. And Melbourne Business School has perhaps the most cause for celebration. The Australian school shot up a whopping 14 places to come in at number nine.
Like Bloomberg BW’s U.S. MBA rankings, released last month, its international MBA rankings are compiled using a methodology that assesses schools based on five factors: a survey of MBA recruiters, weighted at 35 percent; an alumni survey, weighted at 30 percent; a survey of the 2016 graduating class, weighted at 15 percent; the school’s placement rate, weighted at 10 percent, and the starting compensation for the class of 2016, weighted at 10 percent.
What this means, as the magazine points out, is that “it’s possible to rank highly without knocking every category out of the park.” Case in point, INSEAD came in second overall even though it ranked a meager 25th (out of 31) for job placement. (Bloomberg BW measures job placement as the percentage of graduates who land full-time employment within three months of graduation out of those seeking it—the figure reported by INSEAD was 81.6 percent, compared to an average 85.9 percent among all schools).
In terms of pay growth enjoyed by graduates of the 31 schools included in Bloomberg BW’s list, students came in at an average salary of $50,000, jumped to an average starting salary of $90,000 for their first job out of school and reported an average salary of $141,750 six to eight years out from graduation. The average MBA debt taken on by graduates across all ranked schools, meanwhile, was $40,000.
At a glance, here are the top 10 best international MBA programs in 2016 as ranked by Bloomberg BW:
- London Business School
- INSEAD
- Oxford (Saïd)
- Cambridge (Judge)
- IESE
- IE
- IMD
- SDA Bocconi
- Melbourne
- Western (Ivey)
As always, those of us here at MetroMBA encourage applicants to use rankings as just one of many means of evaluating which MBA program is the best fit to their individual needs and goals.
This article was republished with permission from Clear Admit.
International Students Wary Of Potential Immigration Changes
As the wake of the recent presidential election begins to settle, among the first effects has been a possible trajectory change where international students pursue an MBA.
The Financial Times recently followed the story of Amrita Dwivedi, a marketing executive from New Delhi who has worked with Google and Deloitte. Prior to last Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, Dwivedi was considered several standout U.S. business schools. After the results, however, they’re rescinding those suggestions, instead opting to focus on the London Business School and Insead to pursue their MBA.
“I want to be able to work in the country where I study after graduation,” they said in an interview with FT reporter Jonathan Moules. “So it is important to be in a place that is immigrant-friendly.”
Even in Europe, however, those options may also soon become limited. Just months after Great Britain opted to leave the European Union, new Prime Minister Theresa May has already gone on record saying that the number of student immigrant visas will likely be reduced. This could also potentially impact Dwivedi’s final decision.
The potential changes come after a wave of international students joined U.S. business schools with a record number of applications at many institutions, including at Michigan Ross.
Ross’ recently hired dean Scott DeRue shared some similar concerns over what could come during a Donald Trump presidency, as the new president-elect has gone on record multiple times against many immigration policies.
“I understand and empathise with those concerns but let’s remember that most presidents campaign in poetry and govern in prose,” DeRue says.
“If there was a restriction on visas to students that would clearly be somewhat harmful to us,” adds Chicago Booth School of Business dean Douglas Skinner. Booth has seen a precipitous rise in applicants in recent years, including a double-digit percentage increase in 2016. However, Skinner notes that nearly a third of students at Booth are from overseas—a figure that’s actually lower than many other business schools across the U.S.
Shading optimism, Skinner also notes that there’s a significant chance that domestic applicants may rise in the wake of policy changes. That, and the fact that Booth has been through some tough times before.
“We have been around since 1898, and the school has survived lots of ups and downs in the economy during that time,” he says.
LBS Adds New Video Submission Element to MBA Application
London Business School (LBS) this fall has introduced a new video submission element to its MBA application. In a blog post last week David Simpson, admissions director for the MBA and masters in finance programs, shared his team’s thinking behind this newest addition to the LBS application process.
“This was not a decision we took lightly,” Simpson writes, adding that they’ve been giving it some thought for a couple of years. In fact, the team piloted the process last year with a handful of candidates, primarily those whose English-language skills warranted assessment. “But this year we are going all-out and using the videos to help us learn a lot more about you,” Simpson says.
Earlier in his post and in past interviews with Clear Admit, Simpson has stressed the importance of the LBS alumni interview. “We gain a HUGE amount from the interview process and love having our alumni conduct them, so that you can learn a huge amount about life at LBS, too!” he writes.
Like many other top business schools, LBS recently reduced the number of written essays it requires of its applicants, keeping just one, about candidate’s aspirations. “A top MBA is a career and indeed life-changing experience,” he writes. LBS’s remaining question on future goals is key, he continues, even though, given the transformative nature of an MBA, those aspirations will change during your studies.
LBS Adds New Video Element for All Invited to Interview
But as it drops a written essay, the London school has decided to add a video submission for all applicants who are invited to advance to the alumni interview portion of the application process. Round 1 LBS applicants who made it to the interview stage all received an invitation to participate in the new video element.
But have no fear, reassures Simpson. “We are being very thoughtful about how we use this exciting new addition to our process,” he says. A video component has its limitations, and he and his team have set their expectations accordingly.
LBS recognizes that factors ranging from cultural differences, diverse professional backgrounds and differing personal comfort levels with being in front of the camera mean that not all applicants will approach the video submission feeling on equal ground. “Some people will feel a lot more comfortable than others filming themselves answering questions,” Simpson recognizes. But even those who are apprehensive should rest assured, he says. “We are NOT looking to use this as a tool to disqualify candidates or ‘catch you out’.” (For those unfamiliar with the term “catch you out,” is just means to expose error or shortcoming in someone.)
In fact, you don’t even need to worry too much about timing your answers just right, Simpson says, adding that they won’t deduct points. “We just want to see how you perform on both the prepared question and the unprepared section,” he says. “We love meeting candidates at events, but it’s not possible to meet you all, so this helps us see you in action.”
LBS partnered with Kira Talent, an online platform that allows higher education institutions to interactive video and written components into their application processes. Kira Talent’s other customers include Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, INSEAD and the Foster School of Business, among others.
“First round applicants have all now submitted, and we can’t wait to watch all the videos!” says Simpson.
Round 1 LBS applicants who have taken part in the new video component, don’t forget to share your experience with others in the Clear Admit Interview Archive!
This post was originally published by clearadmit.com
Best Places to Study an MBA Abroad
Considering an MBA program?
Why not forgo the brutal New England winters and head to tropical Singapore or arid Madrid instead? Or are you one of those loonies who prefers frigid temperatures? Well, then perhaps Toronto might be the best fit for you!
Here’s an overview of the best international (English-speaking) MBA programs Earth has to offer:
MIT Sloan appoints innovation expert Hal Gregersen to head the MIT Leadership Center
MIT Sloan announced the appointment of Hal Gregersen, co-author of The Innovator’s DNA, to its faculty. Gregersen will serve as both the executive director of the MIT Leadership Center and as a senior lecturer in leadership and innovation in the Work and Organization Studies Group.
Gregersen comes to MIT from INSEAD, where he held the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Chaired Professorship of Innovation and Leadership. Previously, he taught at the London Business School, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Helsinki School of Economics, Brigham Young University, and the Turku School of Economics as a Fulbright Fellow. Gregersen is also a Senior Fellow at Innosight, the consulting firm, and a former advisory board member at Pharmascience. Continue reading…
