These are the findings of the latest international B-school ranking conducted by Forbes magazine, which released its fifth bi-annual survey on August 17, 2007. The survey results are based on “return on investments” (ROI) of graduating students, and show a marked preference for the one-year MBA program.
Apart from Tuck, the other US B-schools in the top five tally are Stanford, Harvard, Darden and Wharton. The survey splits the non-US B-schools into two: those focusing on one-year programs and those focusing on two-year programs. Switzerland’s IMD, France’s INSEAD and UK’s Cambridge Judge School are the top three institutes offering the one-year program. Australia’s GSOM, Sauder School in British Columbia (Canada) and Spain’s Esade are the top three institutes for the one-year MBA. (See the list below)
Noting the better ROI of one-year programs, Forbes says, “Our ranking highlights the appeal of one-year programs. Our survey ranks schools based on return on investment--meaning compensation five years after graduation minus tuition and the forgone salary during school. Each of the top five one-year foreign programs beat out all two-year programs because the opportunity cost, in lost wages, to attend is materially less.”
Giving an example, Forbes adds, “IMD in Switzerland, which ranked first among such one-year schools, had a median five-year gain of $169,000. By comparison, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, which tops the list of two-year programs for the second time, had a median five-year gain of $115,000.”
The rankings are based on the ROI that graduates of the Class of 2002 received. Forbes sent questions to 18,500 alumni of 102 MBA programs around the world. Twenty-two per cent responded. For the US rankings, only two-year programs were eligible. Forbes asked the alumni for their pre-MBA salaries as well as for the compensation figures for three of the first five years after they got their degrees. Then, the survey compared their post-MBA compensation with their opportunity cost (tuition and forgone salary while in school) and what they would have made had they stayed in their old jobs.
Forbes Top 10 US B-schools 2007:
- Darmouth (Tuck)
- Stanford
- Harvard
- Virginia (Darden)
- Pennsylvania (Wharton)
- Columbia
- Chicago
- Yale
- Northwestern (Kellogg)
- Cornell (Johnson)
Forbes Top Non-US One-Year Business Schools 2007
- IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Insead, Fountainbleau, France
- Cambridge (Judge), Cambridge, UK
- Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, Spain
- Cranfield, Bedford, UK
Forbes Top Non-US Two-Year Business Schools 2007
- GSOM, Australia
- British Columbia (Sauder), Canada
- Esade, Spain
- Ceibs, China
- McGill, Canada
Source: Forbes.com