Why U.S. News & World Report Changed Its Rankings Methodology
For prospective MBAs, the most difficult step towards a business school degree is knowing where to start. And for many, the most obvious is researching the near-endless amount of college ranking sites. After years of scandals and much-publicized doubts, however, the authority of these rankings may be in question.
In a recent Philadelphia Magazine op-ed, writer Sandy Hingston asks, simply, “Can We All Agree Now That College Rankings Are Bunk?”
Hingston’s critique, which highlights in relative inexactness of the college ranking sites, is not the first of its kind. In 2011, popular New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell wrote wrote about his issue with college rankings. In “The Order of Things,” Gladwell notes that the outcomes of students sometimes do not match college reputations.
Principally, Gladwell, the author of the massively popular 2008 book Outliers: The Story of Success, found fault in how publications like U.S. News & World Report conducts rankings. He writes, “the magazine sends a survey to the country’s university and college presidents, provosts, and admissions deans (along with a sampling of high-school guidance counselors) asking them to grade all the schools in their category on a scale of one to five.”
In regards to the scoring system, Gladwell cites numerous incidents that say reputation weighs too heavily. This is important considering that personnel often do not know what other schools are actually like. To illustrate, he brings up a different ranking from the time, with much different results:
“In an article published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Ashwini Sehgal analyzed U.S. News’s ‘Best Hospitals’ rankings, which also rely heavily on reputation ratings generated by professional peers. Sehgal put together a list of objective criteria of performance—such as a hospital’s mortality rates for various surgical procedures, patient-safety rates, nursing-staffing levels, and key technologies. Then he checked to see how well those measures of performance matched each hospital’s reputation rating. The answer, he discovered, was that they didn’t. Having good outcomes doesn’t translate into being admired by other doctors. Why, after all, should a gastroenterologist at the Ochsner Medical Center, in New Orleans, have any specific insight into the performance of the gastroenterology department at Mass General, in Boston, or even, for that matter, have anything more than an anecdotal impression of the gastroenterology department down the road at some hospital in Baton Rouge?”
He goes on to say, “reputational ratings are simply inferences from broad, readily observable features of an institution’s identity, such as its history, its prominence in the media, or the elegance of its architecture. They are prejudices.”
In addition, Gladwell notes important economic distinctions that many college ranking sites ignore. For the sake of simplified ranking, small private schools are compared to massive public institutions and scored equally. But doing so overlooks the economic makeup of enrolled students, funding, and much more.
A Modern Change for U.S. News
Seven years later after Gladwell’s critique, U.S. News & World Report continues to refine its rankings method. The publication’s new changes aim to emphasize economic mobility. This comes just one year after Politico revealed that the upper-echelon schools continually reward students that are already wealthy. That discovery may not be “groundbreaking,” but the data is still jarring. Many of the country’s most well-known institutions enroll more students that come from the top 1 percent of income-earning families than the bottom 60 percent of earners.
Why is this important and why did U.S. News & World Report need to change? Like Gladwell said seven years prior, prejudices feed the rankings and the economics factors are biased. And the amount of inequality it expanded may have been profound.
The Politico study outlined these key factors in the previous U.S. News ranking formula:
- Student Performance
- Lower Acceptance Rates
- Higher Performance on Surveys
- Alumni Donations
These factors weigh heavily for students from more affluent backgrounds. U.S. News, like many of its popular ranking competitors—such as the Financial Times and Bloomberg—rely on similar scoring systems, which often left the economically disadvantaged out of the equation.
The aforementioned 2017 Politico report points to the lengths some schools and state governments went to meet the U.S. News standards:
“Colleges go to great lengths to rise in the rankings. The president of one school ranked in the top 20 said the college caps classes at 19 students, simply because the rankings reward schools for keeping classes under 20 students. In some states, the rankings are built into accountability systems for university presidents. Arizona State trustees put a bonus pegged to the rankings in the president’s contract. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott set a goal to ‘achieve the first top-10 research public university and a second-ranked public university in the top 25.'”
Robert Morse, U.S. News Chief Data Strategist, says of the changes; “There is an active and ongoing debate about how to best measure quality in education, and we pay close attention to that debate. Over time, our ranking model has put more emphasis on outcomes measures … As part of this evolving process, we’ve wanted to measure whether schools were successful at serving all of their students, regardless of economic status.”
The publication will begin accounting more for social mobility and rewarding of Pell Grants. As well, Morse says, schools that enroll a higher percentage of lower-income students will get more credit for graduation rates. In total, “13 percent of a school’s rank is now dependent on the economic diversity of its campus.”
Will Other College Ranking Sites Follow?
The changes for U.S. News‘s rankings may cause a slow sea change for its competitors. For its undergraduate ranking, SAT/ACT scores now factor less in the overall score. This, like many of the highlights indicated above, is because standardized tests are highly correlative with income. The acceptance rate boost is being completely removed as well.
The dismissive stances from the likes of Hingston and Gladwell likely will not be re-mediated immediately. After all, college ranking sites will likely remain among most popular resource for school research. However, a more modern evaluation can pay dividends in the long-term. And for U.S. News‘ prime competitors, following suit may be an unavoidable remedy.
The next annual U.S. News ranking of the country’s best business schools will arrive early next year. Whether the new changes will weigh heavily in the rankings remains to be seen.
Rady School Top 15 in 15
Sponsored Content
The Rady School of Management is approaching its 15th anniversary and since its founding in 2003, the school has reached many remarkable milestones. Through the generous support of the business community, the school has grown exponentially—offering new graduate and undergraduate programs, expanding the ranks of its world-renowned faculty, and constructing state-of-the-art facilities where students thrive. Most impressively, the school’s focus on entrepreneurship and innovation has led to numerous companies, founded by Rady School students and alumni, that are changing our world and significantly contributing to our economy. Here’s a look at the top 15 accomplishments the Rady School has achieved in its first 15 years.
- Over 150 operational startup companies have been started by Rady School alumni and students. These startups have revolutionized industries, led to breakthrough medical devices, drastically enhanced the lives of the visually impaired, improved personal wellness monitoring and have forever transformed our world for the better. Many of the startups are a product of the Rady School’s unique Lab to Market core sequence and accelerators.
- The Rady School is grown into an economic powerhouse, with alumni and student startups creating over a $6 billion dollars impact in the local, national and global economy in the last 15 years.
- Founded with the intention to provide quality business education to leaders in innovative industries, the Rady School has launched distinguished graduate programs to serve the needs of the business community, including the school’s flagship Full-Time MBA and FlexMBA programs, which are already recognized among the best.
- In addition to the MBA programs, three specialty graduate programs have been launched: a Master of Finance, a Master of Science in Business Analytics and a Master of Professional Accountancy.
- The school also has three robust undergraduate programs, a business minor, an accounting minor, and a entrepreneurship and innovation minor, all of which are among the most popular minors on the UC San Diego campus.
- Rady School faculty are recognized as leaders for the quality of their research. Over the past 15 years, the school’s faculty have been ranked number one in the U.S. for intellectual capital by Bloomberg Businessweek, 14th globally for faculty research by the Financial Times and 12th globally in student rating of teaching quality by The Economist.
- Since its inception, the school has received strong support from the business community. The school’s many supporters have been generous with their time and with gifts to support the mission of the school. Notable gifts include: a $100 million gift from Ernest and Evelyn Rady to fund strategic priorities and recruit faculty; a $4 million gift and endowed chair from Nobel Laureate and Rady School professor Harry Markowitz and his wife Barbara, a $30 million naming gift from Ernest and Evelyn Rady, and a $5 million gift from Carol and William Stensrud for program development and faculty recruitment.
- The Rady School has established five Centers of Excellence: the California Institute for Innovation and Development (CIID), the Beyster Institute, the Center for Business Analytics, the Center for Social Innovation and Impact, the Institute for Supply Excellence and Innovation the U.S. – Israel Center on Innovation and Economic Sustainability. Each of the school’s centers focuses on a different topic of importance and provides additional learning opportunities and experience for students.
- Launched in 2013, the StartR Accelerator at the Rady School is a non-profit program for Rady School students and alumni designed to provide entrepreneurs the tools needed to start and grow their businesses. The StartR program includes workshops, mentoring, advice and access to other resources for early-stage companies. At the conclusion of the program, teams present their pitches at Demo Day, attended by investors, industry experts and the San Diego community.
- The Rady School’s mystartupXX program is a one-of-its-kind accelerator that was created to increase and encourage diversity in entrepreneurship. Program participants take workshops on launching startups, team building, leadership, market assessment, consumer feedback, creating a value proposition, validating business models, and understanding financing strategies needed to launch the business. Each team works with a mentor and advisors who monitor and encourage their progress.
- The Rady Venture Fund, a student-assisted venture capital investment fund, was established to support the Rady School’s educational objectives in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and transfer of discoveries into the marketplace. Students screen investment leads, perform due diligence, make investment recommendations, and monitor portfolio companies. To date, the fund has invested in five early stage companies.
- The Rady School’s Center for Executive Development (CED) offers courses and certificates provide valuable learning experiences that meet the needs of executives and managers in the rapidly changing world of business. Popular CED courses include: leadership, team building, and interpersonal skills. Executive development faculty are industry experts, renowned researchers, engaging teachers and authors.
- The Rady School’s Ph.D. program began in 2009, attracting top doctoral candidates from around the globe. Rady School Ph.D. students have gone on to teach at top school across the U.S. and the globe.
- Two state-of-the-art buildings have been constructed to house the Rady School and provide a modern and technology-forward learning space. Otterson Hall opened in 2007 and Wells Fargo Hall Opened in 2012. Wells Fargo Hall has been LEED Gold certified for its sustainable practices.
- The Rady School earned accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) in 2011. AACSB International is the premier business education accrediting body, with less than five percent of business schools worldwide achieving accreditation.
To learn more about the Rady School of Management, visit the Marshall website.
The Texas MBA Programs Guide: Houston vs. Dallas
If you’re looking to earn a Texas MBA, where should you go to school? Should you choose a top MBA program in Dallas or Houston? First, we need to take a look at the cities.
Living in Dallas vs. Houston
First, let’s take a look at the cost of living in Dallas vs. Houston. According to Numbeo, the world’s most extensive database containing user contributed data about cities, the overall cost of living is relatively similar: $4,242 in Houston compared to $4,000 in Dallas. Houston barely edges out Dallas with a slightly higher cost of living, and here’s how that’s broken down.
- Consumer Prices: 35 percent higher in Houston
- Rent Prices: 7.30 percent higher in Houston
- Restaurant Prices: 27 percent higher in Houston
- Groceries Cost: 95 percent higher in Houston
- Local Purchasing Power: 26 percent lower in Houston
Other things to consider when choosing between Dallas and Houston include:
- Industries
- Houston is known for being the oil capital and is an ideal location for jobs in the energy industry.
- Dallas, on the other hand, is known for real estate (Tramelle Crow is headquartered here), as well as hedge funds and asset management firms.
- Economic Development: According to Site Selection Magazine, Houston and Dallas are comparatively equal when it comes to economic development, ranking second and third respectively.
- Top Companies: Houston edges out Dallas for being home to more Fortune 500 companies. In fact, Houston is home to 27 top companies compared to 14 in Dallas. However, they rank second and third respectively.
However, according to Forbes, “while Houston and Dallas have decent amenities (and having better ones surely wouldn’t hurt), they aren’t places that offer a unique lifestyle brand, such as charming architecture or a cutting-edge arts scene.”
Texas MBA Programs
The next step is to compare the top three MBA programs in each city. In particular, we wanted to take a look at the tuition rates (two years), GMAT averages, and post-graduation salaries at each program in each city to get a well-rounded picture.
Overall, there are a few things to note right away.
- The top full-time MBA programs in both cities are ranked well. However, Houston programs tend to rank higher on major ranking sites such as The Economist and Bloomberg Businessweek.
- Houston tends to be more expensive regarding tuition ($93,052 vs. $69,191), but it also pays a higher salary ($110,000 vs. $92,000). This balances out with around a $25,000 difference in tuition and a $20,00 difference in post-graduation salary.
- Finally, GMAT averages for class profiles tend to be higher in Houston as well (688 vs. 660).
Here’s how it all breaks down per school.
Top 3 Houston MBA Programs
McCombs School of Business – University of Texas at Austin
The McCombs School of Business offers a full-time MBA, an Evening MBA, a Weekend MBA, and an Executive MBA program. And it’s considered one of the top business schools in the country, consistently ranking highly on various lists, including ranking 28 according to The Economist.
- Tuition Rates (two years): $91,000
- GMAT Averages: 703
- Post-Grad Salaries (Mean): $117,068
Rice University – Jones Graduate School of Business
The Jones Graduate School at Rice University offers a full-time MBA program, an MBA for Professionals (part-time), and an Executive MBA Program. The school’s full-time MBA program ranked 10th on the Bloomberg Businessweek list in 2017.
- Tuition Rates (two years): $116,000
- GMAT Averages: 711
- Post-Grad Salaries (Mean): $112,158
Mays Business School – Texas A&M University
The Mays Business School has both a full-time MBA program as well as a part-time Professional MBA program. In addition, the school offers an Executive MBA. In 2017, The full-time MBA program ranked 20th overall by Forbes, and 22nd overall by Bloomberg Businessweek.
- Tuition Rates (two years): $72,158
- GMAT Averages: 649
- Post-Grad Salaries (Mean): $103,299
Top 3 Dallas MBA Programs
Naveen Jindal School of Management – University of Texas at Dallas
The Naveen Jindal School offers a full-time MBA, part-time Professional MBA, Executive MBA, and Global Leadership Executive MBA program. The full-time MBA is well ranked according to the U.S. News & World Report, ranking 16th among public university programs in the U.S.
- Tuition Rates (two years): $27,603
- GMAT Averages: 678
- Post-Grad Salaries (Mean): $86,644
Cox School of Business – Southern Methodist University
The Cox School of Business at SMU offers a full-time MBA, Fast Track MBA, Professional MBA (part-time), and an Executive MBA program. Most recently, SMU Cox achieved its first Financial Times ranking at 91st.
- Tuition Rates (two years): $91,952
- GMAT Averages: 661
- Post-Grad Salaries (Mean): $96,587
Neeley School of Business – Texas Christian University
At the Neeley School of Business at TCU, MBA applicants can apply to the full-time MBA, Accelerated MBA, Professional MBA (part-time), Accelerated Professional MBA, or MBA for Energy Professionals program. The Economist ranked the Neeley School MBA ranks 61st overall on its most-recent ranking.
- Tuition Rates (two years): $88,020
- GMAT Averages: 640
- Post-Grad Salaries (Mean): $93,010
Dallas vs. Houston Breakdown in Charts
When breaking down the data between MBA programs in Dallas and Houston, here’s what it looks like:
Texas MBA Tuition
Texas MBA GMAT Averages
Texas MBA Post-Graduation Salaries
Real Humans of the Rady School of Management MBA Program
In less than 20 years since opening in 2001, the University of California San Diego Rady School of Management has quickly cemented itself as one of the best up-and-coming business schools in California. Regarded as one of the 100 best business schools in the world by The Economist, with an impeccably strong and celebrated faculty, Rady has nurtured an increasingly excelling MBA class.
The Rady School of Business Class of 2019 MBA sported a gaudy median GMAT score of 670 and an undergraduate GPA of 3.21. These students also joined the program having amassed more than five years of professional work experience, on average, with numerous prospective graduates coming from well-known companies like: Intel Corporation, Loreal, Princeton University, and Scripps Health. As well, about 16 percent of students within the class joined the program having already earned either their Ph.D. or an additional Master’s degree.
Considering San Diego’s strong connection to the United States Armed Forces, it isn’t surprising to hear that many students in the Class of 2019 come directly from the U.S. Army, Navy, and Army. The Rady School of Management, along with many of UC San Diego’s additional graduate schools, show a concerted effort to bring in those with military experience, offering MBA fee waivers, as well help from an extensive network of school alumni that continue to work with the U.S. military.
But the Class of 2019, and the Rady School of Management itself, goes much deeper. With a budding entrepreneurial culture, students are coming in from all over the world to help build groundbreaking startup companies. In fact, more than 40 percent of the MBA Class of 2019 comes from outside the United States, utilizing Rady’s numerous startup resources, like the StartR Accelerator program, mystartupXX Accelerator, and the Rady Venture Club, among others.
To get a greater understanding of what it means to be a Rady MBA, and how the school continues to help develop a rich entrepreneurial foundation, we spoke with several current students, including a consultant from Bangalore, a software developer from Kolkata, and a local equine veterinarian hoping to build a “biotech and medical industry consulting firm in for both the human and veterinary market.”
Read on to see what’s in store for these students at Rady and what life after an MBA may look like.
The Best Long Angeles MBA Return on Investment Bets
Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the most important factors a prospective MBA can take into consideration when choosing the right business school.
Of course, the true value of each MBA program may ultimately be something impossible to measure. The kind of connections made through professional networking, the soft skills that students attain which help them navigate through both their personal and professional life—these aren’t things that can be easily quantified. But, thankfully, factors like average salary increase, rate of post-graduate employment and the overall tuition of a program are. And these numbers can help students start to better see an overall picture of what each MBA is worth.
The Best Long Angeles MBA Return on Investment
The Marshall School of Business – USC
The Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California is consistently one of the top ranked MBA programs in the state of California and even throughout the country. Specific ROI aside, these sorts of honors should also be a factor when considering the overall value of the program: for example, Marshall has been named the third best program for “Most Satisfied Business School Graduates” by Forbes and sixth on The Economist’s ranking of “Best Alumni Networks.”
Based on tuition for the 2017-18 school year, the total expense (tuition, fees and living expenses included) to pursue a full-time MBA at Marshall would be $95,881 for the first year and $82,522 for the second, for a total of $178,403.
Now take into consideration the fact that the average salary for graduates of Marshall’s full-time MBA program within three months of graduation is $115,309, and that the large majority of job offers (38 percent) for MBA students came from on-campus recruiting or job postings through the university. The second highest source of employment (21 percent) came from internships held while in the MBA program. Furthermore, a number of top organizations—such as Apple, AT&T, and Walt Disney Studios—hired the graduates of Marshall’s 2016 MBA class. All of these factors boost the overall ROI of Marshall’s program, making it one of the top valued programs in L.A.—even with the high price tag.
Anderson School of Management – UCLA
The Anderson School of Management at UCLA is another program which offers a high ROI when considering the types of opportunities and salaries available to students after graduation. While the tuition cost is certainly high—roughly $194,220 (including fees and living expenses) for the the two years of the program, the benefits to students are undeniable.
A look at the full-time employment report for the most recent MBA class finds that 92.4 percent of students were offered full-time employment within just three months of graduation, with 87.7 percent acceptances. By far (72.2 percent) , students found their employment opportunities through Anderson-facilitated resources, such as internships, on-campus recruiting, or from UCLA Anderson alumni and classmates.
The salaries for graduating Anderson students also reveals a positive trend: the average post-graduate compensation was $118,150, with 70.6 percent of students earning signing bonuses of up to $89,500. The connections sewn by Anderson internships and alumnae also reveal a significant payoff in the types of organizations hiring Anderson alum: companies like NBC Universal, IBM, Barclays, Google, and other major corporations now have Anderson MBA graduates on staff.
The Paul Merage School of Business – University of California, Irvine
The UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business is one of the top business schools in the Los Angeles metro area, as evidenced by its consistently high rankings from various publications, such as the Financial Times and U.S. News & World Report.
With the program’s recognition for its high lifetime earnings combined with the relatively low cost the degree, it’s no surprise that that the program at UC Irvine produces a high return on investment. The estimated total annual cost of an MBA at Merage ranges from $67,422—$83,967, depending on if you whether or not you are a resident of California and whether or not you will be using campus. This is compared with an average post-graduate salary of $97,808 for the 2017 graduating class. About 50 percent of all students were employed by graduation, and 81 percent held full-time jobs within three months.
Graziado School of Business and Management – Pepperdine University
One of the reasons Pepperdine’s Graziado School of Business boasts such a high return on investment is the many different formats in which students can pursue a full-time degree. With the opportunity to take the full-time MBA over the course of 12, 15, or 20 months, the Graziado MBA typically costs less overall ($74,250 for the 12-month program, $99,000 for all others) and means less time away from a full-time paycheck.
Combine this with the success rate of 82 percent of students accepting job within three months after graduation and a $120,000 starting salary (at highest), and its understandable why Graziado graduates find incredible value in their degree.
How to Begin Your MBA Search, Part I
You’ve weighed your options, and it seems like getting an MBA might be the best route to attaining your professional and personal goals. You’ve considered the expense and the time spent away from the workforce that an MBA requires, and you’re finally ready to begin your MBA search.
You’ve even read Philip Delves Broughton’s advice against attending business school in The Economist, and still find yourself cracking GMAT Study Guides and searching ROI figures in U.S. News & World Report. But even if you’re the most motivated future MBA, it is of utmost importance to ask yourself a number of questions as you embark on the process of applying and gaining admission to business school.
“Understand Where You Want to End Up Before You Even Begin”
Those are the wise words of Jeremy Schifeling, the founder of Break Into Tech and a veritable guru on the subject of how to find meaningful work in the tech world without engineering experience. A graduate of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, Schifeling also speaks to his experiences there, adding that “way too many people show up on campus just because other people are doing the same. And without a plan, they walk away two years later, six-figures poorer but not six-figures wiser.”
The end lesson from Jeremy’s advice? Suss out what you want to do with an MBA, and don’t just go into a b-school program to make a lot money, or because everyone else seems to be doing so. Make a plan, and even if that plan changes, you’ll still have a leg up on many of your classmates.
Figure Out What Programs Best Fit Your Plan
Let’s imagine that you know that you are interested in supply chain management. You could search around the web for schools that have special programs in logistics and supply chains, but that will only take you so far. Consultant Stacy Blackman notes, “some of our clients call up companies they are interested in working with to learn their opinions of target schools and where they recruit. If you are very specific about where you want to end up, this is a great idea.” Thus, if you’re certain about a career in operations and logistics, it might behoove you to contact companies like XPO Logistics or Werner Enterprises to see what b-school programs their management team recruits from.
If you’re not certain of exactly what career you want an MBA to lead to, but you have a general idea of the business field that you’d like to pursue, then it might be more reasonable to think about where you want to end up.
Location, Location, Location
Paul Bodine of Paul Bodine Consulting/Admitify says that it is absolutely necessary to ask yourself, “what geographies are essential to your post-MBA career and/or life goals?” The question can make all the difference in what schools you consider applying to—Bodine notes that “you can spare yourself the challenge of seeking admission to the top 10 schools if you have a defined region where you want to make your stand professionally and personally.” If you are wedded to working in traditional commodities markets (and bitcoin, surprisingly), then it wouldn’t make sense to stray far from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, for example. If your search is geographically limited for reasons beyond your control, then find out which programs suit your needs best within that area. A tech business mind in the South might ponder schools in Knoxville or Atlanta, whereas a future lumber baron in the Pacific Northwest need look no further than Oregon State in Corvallis. There are opportunities everywhere, but it is up to you to find those that are most in line with your goals!
Stay tuned for part two of our series, coming soon!
