The Best Business Schools for Career and Personal Growth

A student in a class at the Indian School of Business

Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad)

Discrepancies Between Career Progress and Aims Achieved Rankings

Surprisingly, the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), which ranked #3 in Career Progress, came in at #96 in Aims Achieved. In other words, despite rising in seniority and company size, alumni respondents didn’t feel they achieved what they sought out to do in school. And this school isn’t alone. The Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore) ranked #2 in Career Progress and #84 in Aims Achieved. In fact, both schools showed a similar discrepancy in 2013. South Africa’s University of Cape Town (#13 in career progress and #92 in aims achieved) and the UK’s University of Bath School of Management (#17 in Career Progress and #95 in Aims Achieved) also followed this pattern.

While these are extreme examples, most schools had a 10-30 spot rank discrepancy between Career Progress and Aims Achieved. Take Harvard Business School, for example. It ranked #4 with the career metrics, yet fell to #50 in the aims survey with alumni. Conversely, the University of Chicago (Booth) scored much higher on Aims Achieved as opposed to Career Progress, ranking #16 on the former and #46 on the latter.

IESE Business School

Stanford Tops Combined Average

In reality, Career Progress and Aims Achieved are similar metrics. The former applies student-supplied data to rank their career development (with size of company likely discriminating against entrepreneurs and seniority not necessarily mirroring influence). Similarly, attaining school goals (i.e. Aims Achieved) doesn’t necessarily translate to career success. To balance out these two interests, Poets&Quants averaged the two rankings.

Not surprisingly, Stanford again came out on top, with an average rank of 1.5 when Career Progress and Aims Achieved are combined. Switzerland’s IMD edged out Spain’s IESE Business School, with the schools’ average rans at 4.0 and 4.5 respectively. The London Business School (7.5), Esade Business School (8.0) and the University of Cambridge (Judge) (8.5) all maintained combined ranks under 10 (with the Yale Business School coming in just behind that with a 12.5 average).

To view the top 100 schools, continue to the next pages.

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