They’re fickle, they’re flawed, they’re far too numerous… but we love them anyway.

By Matt Turner

Do Business School Rankings Still Matter?

OCTOBER 2002: BusinessWeek ranks the McCombs School of Business №21 among U.S. MBA programs — down from 17. Result: Concerned students line up outside the dean’s office demanding answers. October 2015: Bloomberg Businessweek ranks McCombs №21 in the 15th iteration of its annual ranking — up two spots from 2014. Result: Crickets. Why the different reactions?

The first example was a drop in rank; the second, a rise. Everyone likes an upward trend, and ranks are always relative. In 2002, BusinessWeek only ranked 30 schools, while last year’s list included 74. The earlier result lies in the lower third (21 out of 30); the latter, the upper (21 out of 74). Then there’s the psychology of numbers. The earlier outcome represented the first time the school dipped below 20 in a U.S. ranking. BusinessWeek had started the top 20 comparison by ranking only a score of schools. Over the years, this number has inched up to a high of 85 (2014), and elite schools nationwide routinely move in and out of the top 20.

The issue of credibility also plays a big part. The influential magazine changed its methodology several times over the years, and 2014 turned out to be a real howler: Duke suddenly took the №1 spot in the nation, above Wharton and Chicago; Harvard slouched in at №8; and Virginia plummeted to 20 (from 10), finding itself below UNC. Eyebrows were raised, and administrators began to chuckle. Trust once broken is hard to mend. 2015’s Bloomberg Businessweek ranking — with a major methodology overhaul in place — seemed like a return to normalcy, but the damage was done. Reversing a decades-old trend, applicants to the Texas MBA program now point to U.S. News & World Report, not Bloomberg Businessweek, as the most reliable business school ranking.

Finally, rankings have simply proliferated. For most of the ’90s, just two magazines — Businessweek and U.S. News — held a virtual monopoly on MBA reputation. Then, everyone began jumping on the MBA ranking bandwagon: Hispanic Business (1998), Financial Times (1999), Forbes (2000), the Wall Street Journal (2001), and the Economist (2002). Adding to all the noise, business school rankings published by online media have recently exploded. Eighteen have crossed my desk in just the last few years. In the cacophony, schools, applicants, and employers stop paying as much attention to any one ranking. And in the digital age no media source maintains the authority it once held.

Yet above the din, rankings still matter. They encourage schools to be accountable and publish comparable data. This provides transparency and allows for benchmarking, which raises everyone’s game. For all their flaws — and they are legion — rankings still provide applicants and recruiters with a roadmap to reputation. And alumni love them.

No matter how you look at it, McCombs’ placement in the rankings overall is as high as ever.

McCOMBS’ RECENT RANKINGS (as of August 2017)