What If Your Business School Isn’t In The Rankings?

Mention business schools in any room, and you’ll likely hear the same short list: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, INSEAD, LBS. They dominate rankings, headlines, and employer shortlists. These names carry decades of accumulated prestige and benefit from it too. They don’t need to explain themselves. Their reputations precede them.

But what about everyone else?

What about the newer, globally-minded business schools that don’t show up in rankings? What about programs that aren’t accredited by the traditional gatekeepers but are still producing sharp graduates and real outcomes?

These schools face a different game. They can’t lean on legacy. They have to build visibility from scratch through outcomes, storytelling, and strategic communication. That’s where public relations stops being a nice-to-have and becomes a critical growth tool.

THE VISIBILITY GAP IS REAL

Let’s be honest. Employers hire from names they know. Whether it’s brand familiarity, personal bias, or an old-school belief in rankings, graduates from the top-tier schools still get more callbacks, even when equally or better qualified candidates come from elsewhere.

And while skills-based hiring is gaining traction, it’s not yet the norm. Until it is, lesser-known schools are stuck in a loop. No visibility means fewer opportunities for grads, which means fewer impressive outcomes, which makes building visibility harder.

Public relations is how you break that cycle. It’s how you start to tell your story before someone else writes it for you.

HOW TO BUILD REPUTATION WITHOUT A RANKING: 6 STRATEGIES

1. Lead with a Clear, Bold Narrative

You can’t build trust on marketing fluff. You need a real story.

Why does your school exist? What gap are you filling? What about traditional education isn’t working, and what are you doing differently?

Don’t try to imitate the establishment. It’s already taken. Instead, define what’s next.

The most interesting schools right now aren’t replicating the past. They’re designing business education for the world we actually live in: fast, global, and outcomes-driven.

2. Make Employers Know You

Most employers hire from a handful of schools they already trust. Your job is to earn a spot on that list.

Share data on where your grads are going. Highlight partnerships, internships, and co-designed projects. Tell the story of alumni success, even if they’re just getting started.

People don’t trust what they don’t recognize. Visibility builds familiarity. Familiarity builds trust.

3. Get Your Faculty Out of the Classroom

Your professors may not be household names, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be public thinkers.

Help them write for business outlets, comment on current issues, and join panels. Give them platforms like LinkedIn, blogs, or podcasts to speak from. Position them not just as teachers, but as contributors to the real business conversation.

This is how you build credibility by showing that your ideas matter in the world beyond your website.

4. Focus on Outcomes, Not Optics

Top schools love to talk about inputs: GMAT scores, application volumes, rankings. If you’re not playing that game, focus on something more powerful—results.

Where are your grads working? How fast did they switch careers? What real change did they achieve?

Don’t polish the story. Show the mess, the risk, the payoff. That’s what resonates.

5. Be the Media

If traditional outlets won’t cover you yet, that’s fine. Build your own platform.

Start a newsletter, podcast, or publication about the future of business. Interview alumni, faculty, and partners. Make the school a hub of conversation, not just a destination.

Control your story. Don’t wait to be noticed.

6. Borrow Credibility

If you’re unranked or unaccredited, you can still earn trust by aligning with others who already have it.

Co-create programs with companies or tech platforms. Partner with NGOs, incubators, or think tanks. Host events with known names and publish the insights.

These partnerships aren’t window dressing. They’re how you signal relevance.

REPUTATION IS A SYSTEM, NOT A SLOGAN

Top schools have institutional memory and brand equity on their side. You don’t. That’s not a weakness. It’s freedom.

You can define your school on your own terms, but you have to be intentional. Reputation isn’t built by accident. It’s built by people who know who they are, what they stand for, and how to communicate it.

VOICE MATTERS — AND SO DOES THE MESSENGER

You’ve probably heard Simon Sinek’s framework: start with why. Why does your school’s voice matter? What is it offering that isn’t already out there?

That’s where strong PR starts, with a point of view.

But there’s another layer most institutions overlook: the who.

A strategy is only as strong as the people delivering it. A message needs to be embodied, spoken, lived, and carried by people who others trust.

So who carries your story?

• The President or Dean: Not just the figurehead, but the public thinker. The voice that shows up on LinkedIn, at conferences, and in opinion pieces.
• The Faculty: These are your idea generators. Position them as experts, not just teachers.
• The Alumni: Nothing proves your value like their lives. Make them visible.
• The Allies: Partners, speakers, collaborators. Their association with you is part of your legitimacy.

A school’s voice doesn’t live in its brand book. It lives in its people.

DON’T FORGET THE AI LAYER

There’s a new discoverability layer emerging and most schools aren’t ready for it.

Prospective students are now asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI tools questions like:

What’s the best MBA for sustainability? Top programs for digital business? What schools are rethinking leadership education?

If your school isn’t showing up in those responses, you’re invisible to a generation that’s researching this way.

The solution is simple. Feed the system.

Publish relevant content around your key themes. Optimize it for visibility, not just SEO but clarity and authority. Make sure the right voices are saying the right things in public, often.

In the age of AI, visibility isn’t just about media. It’s about data.

REPUTATION IS BUILT, BRICK BY BRICK

If you’re an unranked school, you don’t have the luxury of coasting on legacy. But you do have the opportunity to design a brand that reflects where business is going, not just where it’s been.

To get there, you’ll need more than good programs and good intentions. You’ll need:

A clear story. A public point of view. A set of messengers who can carry your voice. A platform strategy for being seen, heard, and respected. A plan for discoverability in media, networks, and AI.

Because in this new era of business education, the most powerful schools won’t be the ones that yell the loudest. They’ll be the ones whose voices ring true and are impossible to ignore.

---

Guilhaume Jean is an expert of communication and public affairs with more than 10 years’ experience, advising political and business leaders. He is Senior Director at JIN Agency, and leads missions of influence, lobbying, press relations and leaders reputation in higher education, health, mobility, innovation, and industry. A Sciences Po graduate, he teaches at Sciences Po and IHEDN, and serves on the Board of Sciences Po Alumni. Benjamin Stevenin is special adviser to Poets&Quants and former Director of Business School Solutions and Partnerships at Times Higher Education.