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To B or not B A hard look at which B schools are really worth applying to. by Rashmi Bansal, Jam Editor, IIM Ahmedabad alumnus. Immersed in preparations for CAT and the slew of entrance exams that follow, many wannabe MBAs don't spare enough time, energy or common sense short listing which B schools to apply to. On one hand, almost everyone applies to the IIMs even if their chance of getting in is about as likely as an India-Pakistan merger. On the other hand, the desire to keep one's options open means students often apply to B schools which don't really make the grade. Schools, that as an investment in terms of your time and money, do not provide you with a good enough return either in terms of a management education, or placement. So where does one draw the line between the "worth applying to" and the "worth applying to if your aspirations are to become an office-to-office salesman selling credit cards". Traditionally it's been hearsay, "where friends are applying" and advice from the MBA coaching class chaps. And now, there are the annual B school rankings, which until a few years ago, were non-existent. Two major B School rankings have been released this September. First off the block was Outlook's Best B Schools issue which ranked the 50 top schools in the country followed by Businessworld’s which ranked the top 100. One improvement this year has been that the two parameters most important to students - placement performance and academic facilities/ faculty - have been given maximum weightage by both rankings, which is as sensible as rating a restaurant most heavily on the quality of food. (Seriously, the earlier rankings were like rating a restaurant on the waiters' uniforms).
Analyzing The Ranking Only the very blessed .001% will someday face the dilemma of choosing between IIMs. So the top 5 rankings are really more of academic interest. What the average student will find useful is the data on the next 25 institutes. Note: Some prominent institutes eg JBIMS and NMIMS are absent in both rankings. MDI is missing from the Outlook survey, as are XIM-B and Sydenham, among others. Highly advertised institutes like Amity do not figure in the BW rankings. The Key factors Overall rankings are fine but what you need to be more concerned about is important stuff like Academic Facilities, Faculty and Placement. Check out these scores for each institute you plan to apply to at: www.businessworldindia.com & www.cosmoderesearch.org Parameter-wise scores available for top 100 institutes in the BW-Cosmode survey). www.indiabschools.com (Parameter-wise data available for top 50 institutes in the Outlook-CFore survey.)
Some institutes who other wise score high on the rankings (doing well on vague stuff like Industry Interface and Networking/ Innovation) fall several notches when evaluated on the more important aspects. For example: ICFAI Hyderabad (ranking by Businessworld) Overall rank: 12 Ranked by Academic Facilities: 38 Ranked by Placement: 19 According to the Outlook survey, ICFAI fares even worse. Overall rank: joint no 11 Ranked by Infrastructure & facilities: no 39 Ranked by Placements: no 35 (!) The lack of consistency between the two surveys is disconcerting, to say the least! My point, however, is that when you take a closer look, the overall rank of ICFAI Hyderabad should not be taken seriously by a prospective student. Note: One must also note that ICFAI Business School has branches in 16 other cities and the Hyderabad ranking CANNOT be extrapolated to these centers. Students at the Mumbai centre for example, are facing many problems, including lack of infrastructure, faculty and placements (the Mumbai branch which had 60 students just 2 years ago now has 180!) The Placement Funda Teaching and infrastructure matter but as a rule of thumb, go for the institute with the better placements. The fact is, without placements, an MBA is no better than an MA or MCom done solely for the sake of getting a degree! Ex. Goa Inst of Mgmt Overall rank (BW): 20; IIM Indore Overall rank (BW): 23 But IIM I is WAY ahead on the placement front. IIM Indore placement score: 216.25 GIM placement score: 143.21 only In fact, a common problem faced by second rung institutes in far flung ie non -metro locations displacement. eg if it's a choice between TAPMI Manipal (BW no 22) vs Sydenham (BW no 62), it would have to be Sydenham (despite its drawbacks in terms of academic facilities) simply because of the much better placements. What the placement scores mean. Note: Since BW and Outlook have used different parameters and weightages when calculating placement scores, there are striking differences in the results. Study the two methodologies and reach your own conclusion!
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