Graduate Business School Rankings-Who Has Them And How Important? (PhD, degree, NYU)

[Hudlander]

I am looking to go to graduate school for Finance.
I had a few questions:


1) How important are rankings for business school and in this major?

2) Who has rankings and which are the best?

3) When looking at rankings, should I look by major or overall, as I see most list it overall or by MBA, which is not what I going for.

Anybody who can help, please do.
Thanks!

[tpk-nyc]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

I am looking to go to graduate school for Finance.
I had a few questions:


1) How important are rankings for business school and in this major?

2) Who has rankings and which are the best?

3) When looking at rankings, should I look by major or overall, as I see most list it overall or by MBA, which is not what I going for.

Anybody who can help, please do.
Thanks!

It depends where you want to work. If you’re looking at Wall Street investment banks or hedge funds, ranking is everything. For a smaller company in a smaller market, ranking are less important.

[itshim]

If I were you I would try to get into the highest ranked (i.e. US News World Report College Rankings) business program possible. Finance jobs are highly incestuous and elitist and business programs can be incredibly expensive. On top of that, you never know what your ambitions will be after graduation. A high ranking degree will atleast put you in the running for just about every job in your field. Better safe then sorry imo.

[hsw]

For past 15yrs almost no one at any elite hedge fund or GS prop trading desk has bothered with a silly MBA (only retards seek/obtain MBAs)....many are Wharton Finance undergrads....or Stanford CS undergrads...or lib arts clowns from Harvard

Anyone who can read/do arith can learn all needed re: finance or acctg in ~20bks for maybe $300 via Kindle...perhaps while one is 10yrs old

And today, smartest 19yo kid w/a CS degree from a Top 5 school can choose a $200K/yr new software engineer job in SV at a Google, etc....vs $100K/yr as a new fixed income trader at Goldman....and apts in Manhattan cost 100% more than similar apts in SF...basic self-selection of life as economics of industries and career paths change...and much "formal" education is fairly irrelevant in world's most lucrative, highest-IQ industries, which are heavily populated (at top ranks no less) by rather clever college dropouts

[hnsq]

Originally Posted by hsw

For past 15yrs almost no one at any elite hedge fund or GS prop trading desk has bothered with a silly MBA (only retards seek/obtain MBAs)....many are Wharton Finance undergrads....or Stanford CS undergrads...or lib arts clowns from Harvard

Anyone who can read/do arith can learn all needed re: finance or acctg in ~20bks for maybe $300 via Kindle...perhaps while one is 10yrs old

And today, smartest 19yo kid w/a CS degree from a Top 5 school can choose a $200K/yr new software engineer job in SV at a Google, etc....vs $100K/yr as a new fixed income trader at Goldman....and apts in Manhattan cost 100% more than similar apts in SF...basic self-selection of life as economics of industries and career paths change...and much "formal" education is fairly irrelevant in world's most lucrative, highest-IQ industries, which are heavily populated (at top ranks no less) by rather clever college dropouts

I am currently attending a school ranked in the top 10 for MBAs concentrating in finance, and about 30% of the people who graduate from my program end up in Wall Street (the exact jobs you claim 'have not bothered with those silly MBAs'). With all due respect, it seems you may have a read a book somewhere (The Quants by Scott Patterson comes to mind) and assumed that it tells the whole story, when frankly there is a lot more to the world of finance than you seem to know.

You won't even get an interview at a top wall street finance position without at least an MBA (preferably a PhD). Please don't give s**t advice to people who are honestly seeking answers.

OP - Look at overall rank. That influences what type of companies recruit from that school. A school ranked in the top 10 will have companies show up at their door that people in other schools will never hear from, and I would argue that an MBA is only really worth the money if you can get into a top tiered program. The network of contacts you build at a top tiered program is second to none. Due to my alumni network, I can call up or schedule lunch with top equity managers, or experienced traders any time I want. That is something you simply do not get at lower ranked programs, and something that is easily worth the price tag of the program.

PM me if you want and I can give you statistics on the cost to attend as well as post-MBA salaries for my program. I also sit on the student committee that is available to help potential new students, so I have a pretty good handle on what admissions departments at top tier programs want to see. I don't want to post personal info publicly, and frankly I want to give you advice without being interrupted by the uninformed such as hsw, so PM me and I will help you out the best I can.

[coo77]

Top 20 Business Schools according to US News (just one of several magazines that ranks business schools):
1. Stanford School of Business (SF Bay Area)
2. Harvard Business School (Boston)
3. MIT's, Sloan School of Business (Boston)
3. University of Pennsylvania's, Wharton School of Business (Philadelphia)
5. Northwestern University's, Kellogg School of Business (Chicago)
5. University of Chicago, Booth School of Business (Chicago)
7. Dartmouth's, Tuck School of Business (New Hampshire)
7. University of California Berkeley's, Haas School of Business (SF Bay Area)
9. Columbia University School of Business (New York City)
10. New York University's, Stern School of Business (New York City)
10. Yale University's School of Business (Connecticut)
12. Duke University's Fuqua School of Business (Durham, North Carolina)
13. University of Virginia's Darden School of Business (Central Virginia)
14. University of California Los Angeles', Anderson School of Management (Los Angeles)
15. University of Michigan Ann Arbor's. Ross School of Business (Ann Arbor)
16. Cornell University's, Johnson School of Management (Upstate New York)
17. University of Texas Austin's, McCombs School of Business (Austin)
18. Carnegie Mellon's, Tepper School of Business (Pittsburgh)
19. University of North Carolina Chapel Hills', Kenan Flager Business School (Chapel Hill)
20. Washington University's Olin Business School (St. Louis)

Best Business School Rankings | MBA Program Rankings | US News

[Tinawina]

I agree with what most people are saying here. MBAs are all about the cost/benefit ratio. There are almost no scholarships to be had and loans must be paid back to the tune of 1K a month or better. Top of the line finance jobs that pay enough to handle that virtually require a MBA from a top 20 school (really top 15 or better). That or a prestigious PhD in something like Finance or numbers-driven like Engineering, etc. Not to mention the opportunity cost - the money lost from being out of the market and the degree to which your salary has to improve to make it worth the trouble - all of that says that if you can't get a high paying job afterwards, don't bother. That's why people always say go to a top MBA program or don't go at all.

That said there are lower cost programs that can be worth it in some scenarios. It depends on what job you want afterwards.

As far as whether to look at the major...the top schools are the top schools and that doesn't change, but each has certain specialties they are more known for, so I would say target the ones on the list that are known for finance first. It's been a while since I was heacily involved in this stuff, but it used to be Wharton and NYU I think that had particularly strong finance programs. here were others but I don't remember which they were. LOL