2016 Rankings Report Card How Alums Grade Their Schools

2016 Rankings Report Card: How Alums Grade Their Schools by: John A. Byrne on December 04, 2016 | 0 Comments Comments 24,062 Views December 4, 2016Letter A, Report Card, Test Results.Its the most common way to get the inside skinny on a college program. Find an alum and have a candid conversation with him or her. That word-of-mouth endorsement or complaint will have far greater impact on an applicants decision than the slick marketing brochures and websites that inundate candidates and their parents.So when we decided to rank undergraduate business schools, it made perfect sense to search out alumni and ask them the questions that applicants might typically ask. Sure enough, most business school deans agreed and suggested we survey alumni who were out of school by two years. That would be enough time to effectively gauge how helpful their undergraduate education was in preparing them for the world of work and provide enough distance from school to get the most candid replies. Th ats exactly what we did.The survey revealed that, at least among these leading business schools, satisfaction is extraordinarily high. While some schools obviously did better than others, in most cases the differences werent all that great. The gap between the highest scorer and the lowest scorer on any one of our dozen core satisfaction questions was not extraordinarily high. On a 10-point scale, with 10 reflecting the most positive response possible, the difference could be roughly three points from top to bottom. That is a significant difference, but it still reflects a level of high satisfaction with schools. In one case, alumni could be described as enthusiastically positive. In another, merely positive. In no way were any of the scores truly damning. If we surveyed alumni from a larger population of schools, as we intend to do next year, the top-to-bottom differences would likely be greater.HOW WE GRADED THE UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCES AT THE BEST SCHOOLSFor example, on the ques tion, How willing and accesible were the schools alumni in helping you connect with potential employers?, the top scoring school, Washington Universitys Olin School of Business, was given a 9.58 by its alumni, while the lowest scoring school, Purdue Universitys Krannert School of Management, was awarded a 7.12. On another question, How would you appraise the business programs efforts to bring you into contact with practicing professionals, including your schools alumni network, in the business community?, Indiana Universitys Kelley School of Business killed it, scoring a 9.42 from its alumni. Carnegie Mellon Universitys Tepper School of Business was at the bottom, with a 7.31.Schools were assigned  an A grade on a question received above average scores from their alumni. Those who were given B grades were below the average. Like any academically demanding professor, we graded on a curve. But the curve was generous. No school was awarded a C on any question. No school flunked the t est. The top five in any category were given A+. After all, there are now roughly 693 undergraduate business programs accredited by the AACSB, the major accreditation agency for business schools. The schools whose alumni participated in our ranking are among the top seven percentile of programs in the world, the very best of the bunch. So their presence on the list, no matter where they fall, is the ultimate accolade.One obvious drawback to alumni surveys is that graduates typically know their answers are a reflection of their schools reputation and brand. As a result, alums could be biased in favor of their program when they complete these surveys. On the other hand, only a few disappointed graduates can quickly offset quite a few cheerleaders. Overall, therefore, you tend to get more candid replies than you might expect, especially in a new survey where graduates might be less conscious of the rankings impact.Though we sent surveys to alumni at 37 schools that participated in this part of our ranking project, only 28 met the minimum 10% participation. Among those schools,  13,605 alumni received our survey and 1,871 completed it  for a response rate of 13.8%. The College of New Jersey had the highest response rate, 51.8%, while Minnesotas Carlson School of Management had the lowest acceptable rate at 10.3%.WHAT WE ASKED CLASS OF 2014 ALUMNI ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS SCHOOLSHeres the complete list of questions we asked business school alumni, with links to the results and our commentary:1. Would you recommend the business program to a close friend?2. Evaluate how well the business program prepared you for the world of work.3. How would you judge the opportunities given to you in the business program to nurture and improve your business skills?4. Do you believe the business degree was worth its time in cost and tuition?5. How would you judge the opportunities offered to you in business program extracurricular activities to nurture and improve your skills in bus iness?6. How would you rate the quality of teaching in business courses?7. Were business school faculty available for informal discussions and mentoring when classes were not in session?8. How would you appraise the effectiveness of the business programs academic advising effort?9. How would you appraise the business programs efforts to bring you into contact with practicing professionals, including your schools alumni network, in the business community?10. How would you appraise the effectiveness of the business programs career advising effort?11. How would you judge the business programs alumni network and connections that can help you throughout your career?12. How willing and accessible were the schools alumni in helping you connect with potential employers? Page 1 of 1312345...10... »Last  »