How do top 30 B-schools compare across 5 key MBA rankings

Selecting the right B School can be a herculean task if you lack the basic direction. If you aspire to pursue MBA from a top B School, you should not compromise on the quality of the institute. As they say, MBA is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so you have to take the right decision. One of the best ways to research and know about which B School will suit you the best is the B School Rankings.

Recently, MBAUniverse.com has declared its third B School Rankings. More than 100 B schools, including IIMs, XLRI, FMS-Delhi University, JBIMS, SPJIMR, MDI, NMIMS University and IMT, participated in the survey. Publications like Business Today, Business World, The Week and Outlook also published their annual B School Ranking for 2012.

If you are an MBA aspirant who is looking for admission in the year 2013-15, you should choose the right B schools to apply for before selecting the final one on the basis of the final offers received.

You can apply to noted B schools (besides top 10-12) if your score is 75 percentile or above. Keep the IIMs, FMS, XLRI, MDI, etc out of the equation, and 75 percentile is good enough. This article of MBAUniverse.com presents you the top 30 B schools according to MBAUniverse.com B School ranking 2012-13 and the ranks of those B schools as per surveys carried out by Business Today, Business World, The Week and Outlook. This would give you a clear picture about the stature of the B School across various rankings.

Not all the B schools have participated in each of the rankings, which clarify NA or not applicable in the other rankings pertaining to certain B schools. In MBAUniverse.com raking, B schools like IIM Bangalore, SIBM Pune & Bangalore, Christ University did not participate among few others.

You can see a steep difference between the ranks of certain B schools according to different rankings. For example, NMIMS Mumbai is ranked 5th by MBAUniverse.com, 7th by Business Today and Business World and 15th and 13th by The Week and Outlook, respectively. This difference is caused by the methodologies applied. There are three broad categories of methodologies factual, perception-based and a combination of the two.
The following paragraphs will tell you about the methodology of the various rankings. Let us start with the methodology of the MBAUniverse.com B School Ranking 2012.

Overall Rankings (which indicate relative quality of B schools) are calculated on the basis of three broad parameters & their respective weightages:

a) Input scores (30%); b) Process scores (39%); and c) Output scores (31%).
No perception data is used for arriving at MBAUniverse.com rankings.
Business Today, October 28, 2012, issue

According to Business Today, 205 B schools participated in the ranking process. This year, Business Today carried a factual and perception-based survey and combined the results.
Business World, 25 June, 2012, issue
This ranking comprises an objective, data-based survey, and a perceptual survey of various stakeholders in the management education system.
The Week, November 4, 2012, issue

The methodology consisted of a combination of information collected from B schools, HR managers, current and aspiring students, and the analysis of this information. About 700 B schools participated in the survey.
Outlook, October 1, 2012, issue

The methodology of this survey involved all the stakeholders B schools, recruiters, faculty and students. The list of parameters and sub-parameters was kept the same as the previous year to ensure consistency and comparability. The survey was based on perceptual questionnaire and face-to-face interviews.
Source: Respective magazines.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more on MBA Admissions 2013-15.