BusinessWeek May 8 2006 had a great article on the May 2006 Best Undergraduate Business Schools in the U.S. At the top was Pennsylvania (Wharton), and #8 had Brigham Young (Marriott) as the 8th best business school for undergraduates. In fact recruiters put Brigham Young at #1 in the survey.
The Power of Ranking
I do not know what it is about Rankings, but to create a top 50 for any category is a tough thing. People may tend to assume certain things about other programs or the entire school. I think it is easy to “label” a school based on the reputation of one or two programs. On the other hand ranked programs in one area are usually ranked in others. For example: 9/10 of the top ranked undergraduate business schools also have top ranked MBA programs.
In choosing a business school or any other for that matter, if you know what you want to specialize in, look at the school that has the best performance record for that specialty. For example: I am looking at going to an MBA program sometime in the next couple years. The area I am specializing in is entrepreneurship. So I am not looking at rankings of the top business schools, I am looking at rankings of the top entrepreneurship programs in the nation, and comparing them to each other along with rankings like top business schools.
The Name Game
I have always found the statistics on name recognition fascinating. Research suggests that if one name is more familiar than another name, we will rank the familiar higher than the unfamiliar. Much research has been done in this area on childrens names and performance in school. If they have a popular name statistically they get higher grades from teachers who recognize popular names than those students who do not have popular names. I think if you are interested in the power and effect of the name game, then you may want to factor the “popularity” of the school into your choice of what school is best for you, especially if you plan on being recruited by those who understand “popular names”.