Rankings.

They’re just a number…right?

Well, try telling that to your friendly-neighborhood deans. After all, their reputation and prospects hinge on rankings. Students? Their loved ones’ eyes light up a little brighter and their voice hits a little higher when that acceptance letter comes from the Ivy League. Alumni write bigger checks when their alma mater moves up a few pegs. And higher rankings provide reassurance to employers that their hires will ready to hit the ground running on day one.

In many cases, the ranking is the cornerstone of the academic brand. They are the proverbial stamp of approval – a Rorschach that a school supposedly passes muster on what a prospective student might value: teaching, resources, support, facilities, community, networking, or outcomes. It is the academic answer to a winning football team, the campus sugar high that sells tickets and merchandise. Reality is, rankings are self-fulfilling prophecies. Every ranking includes different variables and measure them at different weights. In other words, each possesses a different view on what matters – and schools are conditioned to invest in the areas where they will receive the biggest reward, be it prestige or publicity (or better applicants and bigger donations).

Yes, rankings are academia’s catch-all boogeyman, rife with bias and unable to assess the intangibles – teaching quality, personal growth, long-term success – that make all the difference. Still, rankings serve a critical purpose. In the jargon-filled world of academia—where frameworks and paradigms are contextualized and deconstructed to dilute hegemony and carve spaces – rankings enforce transparency and accountability. They compel schools to supply data that reveals, to an extent, who gets in and how they perform. In other words, they can’t hide behind high-minded missions. Instead, they are judged on real-world results. In the process, their results are placed side-by-side with peers, following the same rules, so stakeholders can make their own decisions.

WHAT RANKINGS TEACH US

Indeed, rankings aren’t designed to be one-size-fits-all oracles. Rather, they are starting points – puzzle pieces – that can tip off candidates to where schools truly excel and what they truly believe. That’s particularly true in U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review, which both rely heavily on surveys. The former solicits responses from business school deans and corporate recruiters, whose combined ratings make up 25% of the ranking weight. In contrast, The Princeton Review dispenses with an overall business school ranking and instead submits 18 separate rankings. These range from quality of life (Classroom Experience, Campus Environment, Faculty Quality) to curriculum (Consulting, Finance, Marketing). Even more, the evaluators are far different, with The Princeton Review surveying current students and recent alumni rather than administrators and recruiters. Translation: The former can speak to the day-to-day experience, while the latter can attest to program quality and professional outcomes. Both carry value, but may speak to different audiences.

That’s why Poets&Quants devotes so much attention to rankings. Forget reading a box score that only reports where schools finished. Instead, P&Q delves into the data points to show the reasons behind a program’s results. We pore over school ranking histories to show which programs are surging and sagging – always with the how and why in mind. More than that, P&Q sizes up the ranking methodologies themselves. Along with dissecting their underlying beliefs, we point out these instruments’ flaws and missed opportunities – along with the emerging areas of consensus they bring into focus. Bottom line: P&Q supplements our readers’ own research, helping them decide which programs provide the best fit, experience, and returns.

This year, P&Q churned out 98 rankings-related articles. They include analysis of the big outlets: U.S. News, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Fortune – not to mention P&Q’s own in-house rankings of Entrepreneurship programs, Undergraduate Business Schools, and Online MBAs. Plus, we’ve dived into specializations, Master’s degrees, academic research and cases, and admissions consultants too. Wondering where your favorite business schools stack up? Check out all of our business school rankings stories in the links below.