It is safe to predict that all the "grandees" represented by Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Kellogg, Columbia, Chicago, Sloan (MIT) have occupied and will continue to occupy the top lines in ranking tables. With a high degree of probability, Fuqua, Tuck, Johnson, Haas, Michigan State will also be located somewhere nearby. But not all applicants are ready to wait another year if they are not admitted to the Top Ten. So let's go down a step or two and see what is happening there, using the Business Week magazine rating as a basis.
So, University of Virginia (Darden). A cozy school in the small town of Charlottesville. It is famous for teaching general management (seventh place in the specialized ranking of US News & World Report magazine, hereinafter USN&WR). A serious career services department, which is important in these difficult times (by August 15, 80% of the graduates of the class of 2003 had received jobs, which is only a few percent lower than the previous figure). The school is famous for the support of "first-years" from second-year students and alumni. Two thousand businessmen who graduated from the school help those currently studying in their job searches. The Economist Intelligence Unit gave the school first place in the world in terms of support provided by alumni.
The teaching concept is based on three pillars: 100% case method (that is, all material is given in the form of "cases," descriptions of examples from the business practice of real companies), class discussions (one and a half to two hours of discussion of these situations in class), learning team meetings (intensive work in groups of six or seven people). Cold calls are actively practiced, that is, situations where the professor initiates a dialogue with a randomly selected student to "open" a general discussion in the audience. All exams are conducted in the form of writing essays, and, according to the university's ethical code, the work can be written not in the classroom but anywhere. Last year enrollment was increased by 25%, to 300 people.
Next in the ranking is Yale University. An undeniable brand, one of the most famous private universities in the United States. Alma mater of Bill Clinton, as well as of PepsiCo President Indra Nooyi and Goldman Sachs President John Thornton. Thanks to its proximity to New York, prominent businessmen and politicians often visit New Haven to give lectures. Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch, George Soros - these are just a few names.
It is believed that this MBA program gathers the smartest and most versatile students in the United States (including former military pilots and Canadian hockey players). Until 1998, instead of an MBA, a Master in Public and Private Management degree was awarded; the curriculum has remained the same to this day, so a certain emphasis has been preserved. In the USN&WR ranking, Yale is invariably number one in the direction of "nonprofit management." Employers, according to Wall Street Journal reviews, value graduates for their effectiveness, ability to work in a team, and analytical qualities (eighth place in the ranking). The school is also distinguished by an original grading system.
Next is New York University (Stern). Columbia's eternal competitor, located in the center of Manhattan, next to the bustling Greenwich Village. In terms of location, Stern gets a "five": no other city on Earth offers as many opportunities in terms of business, learning American culture, and simply entertainment. But it gets a "two" for the cost of living (see table).
The main specialization of the school is finance (third place in the USN&WR ranking), accounting (eighth place). It is believed that Stern also teaches international business and entrepreneurship well. Nobel laureates Robert Solow, Harry Markowitz, and former head of the US Federal Reserve System Paul Volcker serve as visiting professors. The career services office works well: in 2001, five thousand interviews were conducted on campus, and three thousand job offers were posted on the server. The school also succeeded in attracting female students (38% of the total number of students).
Stern places emphasis on developing teamwork skills. As part of the Management Consulting Program, large companies like IBM or Reebok hire groups of students to work on consulting projects. All experts note the excellent technical equipment of the school. For example, some classes are recorded on video and broadcast online for those who could not attend.
Our next stop is at the University of California - Los Angeles (Anderson). UCLA is represented in seven of the 12 specialized "top tens" of USN&WR, including seventh-eighth place in finance and ninth in marketing. The school has a very strong entrepreneurial spirit; strong professors in this field teach here, William Cockrum (Wild Bill) and Al Osborne (Big Al). The proximity of "Silicon Valley" also has an effect.
The curriculum includes the study of eight core courses and 14 electives. Interesting specializations are Entertainment Management, Real Estate. Management Field Study involves a group of three to five students completing a project in a real company.
Anderson has quite a lot of foreign students representing 42 countries. Also a modern complex of seven buildings worth $80 million with excellent technical equipment, which is considered one of the best in the world. By the way, it is quite close to Beverly Hills... Other advantages can be described in one word - California.
University of Southern California (Marshall). Another California option, just a few kilometers from the center of Los Angeles. Fifth place in the USN&WR rankings for teaching entrepreneurship, seventh for accounting. The components of this success are a faculty actively engaged in research, as well as a good educational base, in particular the Leventhal School of Accounting and the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. In total, more than 33% of graduates find work in the field of financial management.
The program emphasizes the study of cross-cultural management. The five-week Pacific Rim Education program module allows you to study the features of management in different countries, not only theoretically but also during short introductory trips to China, Japan, or Mexico.
The school occupies a complex of four buildings, the last of which, Popovich Hall, was built in 1999 and equipped with the latest technology. Experts note the school's active and engaged alumni network, numbering more than 50,000 people in 44 countries. Plus, it's a 20-minute drive to the beaches and an hour and a half to the ski slopes...
Let's move to the Atlantic coast, closer to the White House. The University of North Carolina - Chapel-Hill (Kenan-Flagler) program is praised for its good professors and supportive atmosphere. Recruiters single out its graduates for their ability to work in a team (Wall Street Journal Guide to the Top Business Schools 2003).
The curriculum is divided into four seven-week modules: resource analysis, market monitoring and external interactions, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and change management. Much attention is paid to "cases." The school operates an incubator for new business projects, Launcher, and the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise also does a lot of work in this area.
Since 1997, the school has been located in the McColl Building, worth $44 million. It has a simulated trading floor, wireless Internet access, and access to all major databases.
Let's look into Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon University is located here. Its Graduate School of Industrial Administration consistently ranks among the top twenty schools in the US. Its greatest achievement is third place in the Wall Street Journal ranking, and in the specialized USN&WR rankings for 2003, the school ranks third in the categories of information systems and production management. Four Nobel Prize laureates in economics taught within these walls: Robert Lucas, Merton Miller, Franco Modigliani, Herb Simon.
The highlight of the local MBA program is Management Game, a business game in which students learn to make business decisions. This is an example of the school's innovative approach, which was the first in the world to use computer modeling for teaching. Another example is the mini-semester system, introduced in 1971 and adopted by many other schools. By the way, the MBA curriculum has recently been updated and now offers a choice of one of eight specializations, including biotechnology or computational marketing.
Finally, Indiana University (Kelley) in the town of Bloomington in the Midwest, an hour's drive from Indianapolis. This school was founded back in 1920 and was one of the first in the US to switch to an updated MBA curriculum. It focuses on marketing (sixth in the Business Week specialized ranking), general management, and corporate finance. Much attention is paid to group work and developing leadership qualities, with the Leadership Development Institute playing a significant role. Students study in a state-of-the-art building, completed last year and costing $33 million. It has everything needed, including wired and wireless Internet access, a simulated trading floor, and so on.
...Outside the scope of our article, as well as the Business Week "top twenty," there are still many worthy American schools. We will try to describe them in future issues.