How Recruiters Rank MBA Programs

Now, let’s move on to the more dramatic “overperformers.” These are the business schools that rank far higher overall than their recruiter assessments would suggest. As with the peer assessments, there aren’t any Top 20 schools in this category. However, many of these schools are rising in the rankings due to attracting higher-caliber students who eventually land higher-paying jobs. So which schools deserve a second look from recruiters? Check out the chart below:

The Overperformers: Merage Is No Mirage

 

Overall Rank & School               Recruiter Rank    Recruiter Score    Discrepancy
 49. UC-Irvine (Merage) 97 2.4 48
 58. Temple (Fox) 105 2.1 47
 58. Connecticut-Storrs 97 2.4 39
 40. UC-Davis 77 2.6 37
 23. Minnesota (Carlson) 59 2.8 36
 44. Iowa (Tippie) 77 2.6 33
 37. Rochester (Simon) 69 2.7 32
 67. Tennessee-Knoxville 97 2.4 30
 61. Rutgers 88 2.5 27
 30. Rice (Jones) 50 2.9 20
 40. Boston College (Carroll) 59 2.8 19
 40. Boston University 59 2.8 19
 58. Alabama (Manderson) 77 2.6 19
 51. Massachusetts (Isenberg) 69 2.7 18
 36. Florida (Hough) 50 2.9 14
 66. Arkansas (Walton) 77 2.6 11
 27. Ohio State (Fisher) 37 3.0 10
 93. Tulsa (Collins) 103 2.3 10
 61. Louisiana State (Ourso) 69 2.7 8
 61. Utah (Eccles) 69 2.7 8

Source: P&Q analysis based on U.S. News & World Report top 20 business schools in 2014 ranking

Let’s start with the University of California-Irvine’s Merage School of Business, which cracks the top 50 overall, yet barely slips into the top 100 among recruiters. Merage is among this year’s movers, jumping 27 places to #54 on the most recent Financial Times Global MBA Rankings. The University of Alabama didn’t feel the love from either academic peers or recruiters. Ranked #58 overall, Manderson was slotted at #77 and #93 by recruiters and academics, respectively. However, it rose 20 spots in the most recent U.S. News rankings, so recruiters would be wise to trek down to Tuscaloosa en masse.

The same applies to the University of Connecticut and Rutgers University, which also own respectable overall rankings despite low peer and recruiter assessments weighing them down. Similarly, Temple is skyrocketing, going from being unranked by Forbes in 2007 to reaching #59 in Forbes’ most recent rankings. Fox’s recruiter score should increase as recent Temple B-school grads fan out into the workforce.

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