Master's In Business Administration
(MBA) PREPARATION FOR A MASTER'S IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)
A. Advantages of an Undergraduate Economics Major
In many organizations, an MBA is a vital credential for getting a desirable job. Because a sizeable portion of the content of many MBA programs is based on economics, an undergraduate economics major gives one a competitive advantage over other majors. Most graduate business schools encourage students to take at least some undergraduate economics courses. In fact, many of the best business graduate schools prefer students with the sort of broad liberal arts background which an economics major provides. MBA programs expect their students to think critically, to write and speak clearly, and to analyze rigorously; these skills are developed extensively in an undergraduate economics major. Finally, an MBA program emphasizes making good business decisions. Economic reasoning represents one important methodology for such decisions.
Furman students and their parents sometimes wonder if a major in Business Administration is necessary (or at least better) for MBA work. The answer is clearly no: most graduate management programs want their MBA classes to be as diverse as possible. When students have different educational backgrounds, all can contribute and all benefit. For this reason, applicants with a wide range of undergraduate majors are admitted. Business Administration majors rarely exceed 25% of beginning MBA classes. Interestingly, for those receiving the MBA degree, students who majored in economics at the undergraduate level earn higher salaries, on average, than students from other undergraduate majors.
B. The Application Process
Numerous web sites can help students make good choices when selecting and applying to MBA programs. One of the best is MBA.com, which addresses in great detail questions such as:
- Which of the many ways to earn an MBA is best for you?
- What do different programs teach, and what kind of student services can I expect?
- What is the format and content of the GMAT? How best can one prepare for it?
- What is the best application strategy?
In addition to advice on the business school application process, rankings of MBA schools are readily available from a variety of sources. One of the most reputable is the Wall Street Journal, which this fall featured ranking of MBA programs in three categories (national, regional, and international. Here are these ratings, along with a brief explanation. For more complete information, visit wsj.com.
NATIONAL
1 University of Michigan (Ross)
2 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
3 Dartmouth College (Tuck)
4 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
5 University of Chicago
6 Yale University
7 Northwestern University (Kellogg)
8 Columbia University
9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
10 Stanford University
11 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
12 University of Virginia (Darden)
13 Harvard University
14 Duke University (Fuqua)
15 University of California, Berkeley (Haas)
16 University of Texas (McCombs)
17 New York University (Stern)
18 Cornell University (Johnson)
19 University of California, Los Angeles
REGIONAL
1 Purdue University (Krannert)
2 Vanderbilt University (Owen)
3 Ohio State University (Fisher)
4 University of Maryland (Smith)
5 Brigham Young University (Marriott)
6 Texas Christian University (Neeley)
7 Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM)
8 Michigan State University (Broad)
9 University of Denver (Daniels)
10 Thunderbird (Garvin)
11 Instituto Panamericano de Alta Direccion de Empresa (IPADE)
12 University of Tennessee, Knoxville
13 Indiana University (Kelley)
14 Southern Methodist University (Cox)
15 University at Buffalo/SUNY
16 University of Miami
17 Wake Forest University (Babcock)
18 Washington University (John M. Olin)
19 Emory University (Goizueta)
20 University of Rochester (Simon)
21 University of Florida (Warrington)
22 University of Pittsburgh (Katz)
23 University of Southern California (Marshall)
24 Rice University (Jones)
25 College of William And Mary
26 Penn State University (Smeal)
27 University of Notre Dame (Mendoza)
28 Babson College (F. W. Olin)
29 University of Washington
30 University of Utah (Eccles)
31 Texas A&M University (Mays)
32 University of Minnesota (Carlson)
33 University of Wisconsin
34 University of California, Irvine
35 University of Western Ontario (Ivey)
36 Georgetown University (McDonough)
37 George Washington University
38 University of Georgia (Terry)
39 Boston University
40 University of Illinois
41 Arizona State University (Carey)
42 University of Toronto (Rotman)
43 York University (Schulich)
44 Pepperdine University (Graziadio)
THE TOP INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS
The National and Regional rankings are both determined by how recruiters rate each M.B.A. program on 20 different attributes, their future plans to recruit students from the school, and the number of survey respondents who said they have recruited recently at the school. Business schools in the National ranking tend to attract a relatively large number of recruiters, many of whom come from national and multinational companies and pay high salaries. M.B.A. programs in the Regional ranking are more likely to bring in recruiters from their region than the schools in the National ranking. They also generally have smaller M.B.A. enrollments and attract fewer recruiters than the National schools.INTERNATIONAL
1 IMDInternational 12
2 University of London (London Business School) 15
3 Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ESADE) 7
4 HEC School of Management, Paris 8
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) 9
6 Dartmouth College (Tuck) 4
7 University of Michigan (Ross) 6
8 Thunderbird (Garvin) 4
9 Penn State University (Smeal) 4
10 Stanford University 5
11 University of Chicago 5
12 INSEAD 11
13 Columbia University 6
14 York University (Schulich) 5
15 Erasmus University (Rotterdam) 6
16 Harvard University 8
17 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 5
18 University of Navarra (IESE) 8
19 University of California, Berkeley (Haas) 5
20 Instituto de Empresa (IE) 6
21 Cornell University (Johnson) 5
This ranking includes European and North American schools that have a global pool of recruiters. It is based on how recruiters rated each school on 20 different attributes, their future plans to recruit students from the school, and the number of countries from which the school draws recruiters. To be eligible for the ranking, a school needed respondents from at least four countries to say in the survey that they had recruited there recently.