So it’s that time of the year again when 1000s of MBA
aspirants in the country search for the best B School which will consider their
candidature based on their entrance scores. We look around, talk to people,
look at rankings and even visit career counselors! We spend days and weeks
taking the all-important decision which will shape our careers! I remember my
time 2 years back. This decision was probably the most important of my life!
And today, as I'm about to graduate from my MBA I feel life has come a full
circle...
5) Lastly and most importantly, use your personal judgement after doing all of the above. Your judgement and decision making is what you will be paid for post your MBA! All the best!
Disclaimer: I do not accuse any of the mentioned schools to have “bought” a rank. Without a relevant proof, I would never know if they did. But the lack of transparency is what I am questioning here. If any wrong doers are offended by this post, be rest assured it was totally intentional!
The inspiration to write this post comes from the front
page of Times B School edition dated 27th February 2015. What did it
contain? Obviously the famed B School rankings! And just because I had some
time at hand, I decided to browse through the rankings. The result shocked and
amused me at the same time! The list of top 50 comprised of some institutes
about whom I had never heard before at all! And I had done enough research
before making the choice for myself to say that I have at least heard of all institutes
worthy of a top 50 ranking. And browsing beyond the 50th rank was
hilarious to say the least!!! My thoughts with aspirants who rely on such a
farce to make the decision of their lifetime!
As part of Public Relations Team of my school, I've had a
chance to work on B School rankings and closely understand how the process
works... So here's a small attempt to pen down my learnings and in the
meanwhile, help an aspirant or two to make their choices...
So what exactly is this whole funda of B School rankings? It’s basically an exercise undertaken
by supposedly reputed publishing houses to rank the 100s of B Schools in the
country, supposedly based upon their quality, to supposedly help aspirants
choose which one they should join. And what this whole funda of B School
Rankings ACTUALLY is? An unreported fraud of providing untrue information to students
to incorrectly influence their most important decision. Why? To help “profit”
some who take advantage of limited resources accessible to aspirants to evaluate
the many available options. Sad reality!
So as a member of PR Team, what I saw was that these
publishers collaborate with some survey agencies for data collection. These
agencies send a long 15-20 page form to schools asking for data. What data?
Admission process, fees, kind of programs, faculty details, kind of research,
industry interaction, infrastructure, placements and so on. Seems legit right?
Now the real problem starts. Not all agencies consider all the data. Some may
give a high weightage to infrastructure, some may not consider infrastructure
at all! And not one agency verifies the data provided by the schools. A school
may claim it owns half the city as its infrastructure, sign on the form and
submit and no one will object! And does the final ranking give a true picture
of the data provided? I would never know! All a college has access to is the
final ranking of that college in relation to other colleges. A college is never
given access to the data provided by other colleges to facilitate verification
of the ranking!
That, is exactly where the fraud is! Having been through
various rankings and the whole process of ranking a B School, I will never
understand how an Amity Business School and a Welingkar School is ranked above
an IIM Indore. Or a Jagan institute is ranked above a NITIE. Or how an IIM is
ranked 107th in the list! Only explanation to this absurd trend that I can
think of is some under the table deal meant to incorrectly favour one or more involved
parties. Sadly, it really leaves aspirants with no options to look at while
taking the all-important life decision.
The state of affairs is really sad! Will there ever be a
change in the system? I don't know! But in this situation, where the few trust
worthy ranking agencies like Pagalguy have decided to discontinue their
rankings, what can aspirants actually do? Well, if any aspirant is reading this
post, I can suggest a few things that could help...
1) Talk to friends who are already pursuing MBA from good
institutes. They will generally have a good idea about where a college stands.
2) Go through placement reports carefully instead of
relying on rankings.
3) Create your own simple ranking! Sounds tough? It isn’t actually.
Find out information about a college yourself. Look at parameters which are
important to you. For example, consider the simple weighted average method.
Consider parameters like Infrastructure, Placements, Number of Students,
Location etc. and give weightage to each based on your personal priorities.
Then give marks to the institutes you are considering based on the information
you find out from their website. Multiply the marks with the weight assigned
for that parameter, add the multiplied score across parameters and BOOM! You
have a pretty reliable result that will work for you.
4) If you still want to consider the rankings, use common
sense! If you have been seriously preparing for an MBA, you would know, Ball
Park, which colleges make up the top 10 list. When you look at a rating,
observe carefully if the list has the expected names in top 10. If yes, it might
be genuine. Evaluate further. Go into details like parameter wise rankings. And
do not look for an exact number for your college. Look at a round about figure
and average it across different B School rankings. Consider at least 5-6 relatively
reliable rankings and average them out for the colleges you are considering
(When I was taking my decision, I considered Pagalguy and TIME (the coaching
institute) as some of the reliable rankings for this exercise). You will get
some idea that way.
5) Lastly and most importantly, use your personal judgement after doing all of the above. Your judgement and decision making is what you will be paid for post your MBA! All the best!
While education today has become the most profitable
business, we can only hope that 1 day we will get some regulation into this
rankings business which will eliminate horse trading and agencies will stop
playing with the future of aspirants! How about attaching a detailed result
which explains the ranking given to each school along with the data provided?
Brings in the much needed transparency?
Disclaimer: I do not accuse any of the mentioned schools to have “bought” a rank. Without a relevant proof, I would never know if they did. But the lack of transparency is what I am questioning here. If any wrong doers are offended by this post, be rest assured it was totally intentional!
