WHAT IS THE BEST BUSINESS SCHOOL IN THE WORLD?

[JasonFilAm]

I just want your opinion guys..I truly believe that HBS or harvard Business School is the best business school ..I also heard that Year 2001 is all about HBS graduates..i dunno about this though..

[victory]

Justify your opinion! :) For example, do you think Harvard Business School is the best business school if you were in the field of finance or marketing? :) And what exactly do you mean by "the year 2001 being all about HBS graduates?"

[Lek-Lek]

I don't think Harvard is the best Business School in the world per se. It depends on the area of strength of a particular management school. say for example, in the field of finance, wharton is the undisputed number one. in marketing, its kellog. for corporate and competitive strategy, both harvard and darden are good schools. you see, it depends really.

[hard_guy00]

University of Chicago. Few survive it.

[payaSo]

What if, by some miracle, we were able to agree on which business school was the best in the world. Further, what if, you were not able to win admission to that "best" business school? Are you now going to live the rest of your life as the biggest loser on the planet?

[francisd]

Harvard is one of the best in my opinion. I'm not sure if it is the best but for sure you can get a lot of connections if you're a Harvard alumni.

I heard bfore that majority of the CEO's from Fortune 500 are from Harvard. I have to verify this though.

[cHaSeR]

Wharton

[JasonFilAm]

Originally posted by cHaSeR
Wharton

:angel:That's right!! Wharton Business School is so hard to get admittted in. My friend who is now a SENIOR in my High School applied in like 4 "Ivy League" schools and Wharton is one of them..Damn that guy is so smart. But of course he also applied for UPENN or University of Pennsylvaniawhich is where Wharton is at, in that University;)

[Lek-Lek]

Jason: That's nice then.

[Edited by Lek-Lek on 01-24-2001 at 01:14 AM]

[victory]

The question is whether "difficulty of admission" translates into "being the best business school." Wouldn't factors like a limited number of slots influence difficulty of admission, whether or not the school is actually good at what it does? To be sure, there is some correlation/collinearity between difficulty of admission and the prestige/quality of the program (demand side -- because the program is good, over the years it may have built up a good name and this influences the number of people applying for a limited number of slots), but just because it's difficult to get accepted into a school doesn't necessarily mean that the school is "the best." As hard_guy00 has implied above, for example, wouldn't the criterion of "rigor" be a valid basis for judgment as well, perhaps even more valid than difficulty of admission?

Then again, is "rigor" the real basis for judging whether a school "is the best" or "right for you?" A challenging program may indeed push you to greater heights of development, but would you as an individual learn best in a tough, competitive atmosphere or a more collegial, cooperative place? Wouldn't this factor into your decision of choosing what school is best for you? For example, the University of Chicago's program has the reputation of being extremely rigorous in terms of academics, "not a party school at all," "see you Saturday night at the library." But is graduate business school all about academics, and would you prefer a learning experience that had you spending 95% of your time with your nose buried in your books? Because while you're sweating over deriving the mathematical basis for Arrow-Pratt's coefficient of absolute risk aversion, your peers at Harvard and Stanford are networking, meeting influential people, and making their mark in other ways than scoring high in difficult tests!

Incidentally, the best way to find out whether a school is really good is to actually visit the school and immerse yourself in its program and classes, time and budget permitting. People will always have different opinions of different schools -- why don't you think for yourself and judge based not on what you read in the magazines or fora, etc., but on what you actually experience? Because as "tough" as the University of Chicago's reputation seems to be, my good friend is right there right now and he just got straight A's without spending an excessive amount of time studying! He doesn't think it's "too tough" and he certainly didn't spend too many Saturday nights at the library!

So is Harvard "competitive and cutthroat?" Is the case method "******** and worthless," and would you spend your time better if you "derived a mathematical formula to prove that risk averse people buy full insurance?" (A simple game theoretic formulation, actually) Is Wharton "good in finance, but nothing else?" Is Kellogg "the best" in marketing?" Do Stanford students "do nothing but lie in the sun, network and play golf?" Is Chicago "really tough?" Check it out for yourself! Don't take it from me or from anyone else -- think for yourself!

Do you see what I'm getting at?