Economist Magazine MBA Program Rankings

BedHead
Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:49:28 +0000

BedHead my experience tells me this as well. I interview for my b-school often and attend alumni events during admissions season - these are the choices I see most often. Maybe its an east coast/ west coast thing.



Yes, I think you hit it on the head, or at least were very close. And it goes back to what someone said in an earlier post about does it matter at this level and my follow-up about fit being the most important thing.

Was talking to an Ivy-educated admittee to the Wharton Lauder program recently who has thus far been languishing on the wait list of his first choice, Haas. Why? Because he feels the fit is better and he is entrepreneurially as well as West Coast-minded. And he’s right to wait to see if Haas gives him a nod…Numbers-wise, those odds aren’t looking so good, but Lauder is not a bad fall-back position, is it – even if it is something of a disappointment (and he’ll probably go to Wharton/Lauder and just love it)? I didn’t ask if he had been admitted/declined anywhere else because it seemed to be a sensitive topic.

The point being it is an East Coast-West Coast thing quite likely, and probably also an industry thing. But it does go both ways. If you want to do something entrepreneurial or in tech, frankly I don’t think you can do better than Stanford or Haas/Berkeley. But applicants would do well to have back-up plans because both schools combined have smaller full-time MBA programs in terms of students than Harvard, Wharton, Chicago…and they are excepting Harvard more selective.