Top 15 MBA Programs By Culture: 2017 Wrap-Up

Hey fellow monkeys, was browsing around and saw this.

I'm definitely considering B-School down the line (still in undergrad) but thought this is still some great information to know beforehand - and might be interesting to a lot of you considering an MBA. Berkeley and Stanford are sitting at the top, something that was surprising to me was that MIT and UCLA Anderson are at the bottom (granted, they all must have great culture since this is a TOP 15 list); i've heard a lot of great things about both schools respectively and was expecting them to be higher up.


2018 Best MBA Programs For Culture & Classmates

  1. California-Berkeley (Haas) | 4.68/5
  2. Stanford | 4.68/5
  3. IESE | 4.67/5
  4. University of Virginia (Darden) | 4.63/5
  5. Harvard Business School | 4.60/5
  6. Dartmouth (Tuck) | 4.57/5
  7. University of Michigan (Ross) | 4.57/5
  8. Duke (Fuqua) | 4.54/5
  9. UCLA (Anderson) | 4.54/5
  10. MIT (Sloan) | 4.53/5
  11. Northwestern (Kellogg) | 4.52/5
  12. HEC Paris | 4.52/5
  13. INSEAD | 4.51/5
  14. Columbia | 4.50/5
  15. Yale SOM | 4.47/5

How these MBA programs do so well at choosing an authentic candidate:
“We look for someone who is willing to challenge themselves. They take risks and support others; it’s not just me first, but all of us together can create better things. Also, we want someone who values other people and other perspectives. They work hard and drop their egos and get things done.” - Soojin Kwan, MD of Full-Time MBA Admissions at UMich Ross.


I know some people don't care about culture and have one agenda. Those of you who have done your MBA, what do you think? From what i've read, the general consensus of MBA's is that the value is in the network that you build while there. Any disagreements with this list? What was your experience during your MBA? What makes a good class vs. a bad class culture at a program like this? What was the atmosphere or competitive nature like at your MBA program?

Source: The Economist, via Poets&Quants

 
TheGrind:
Not sure what you'd take away from this, as the difference between #1 and #15 is 1/5 of 1 point.

I've got friends from most of the schools on this list and they all had a pretty good time.

They are also just all very different. You can find your niche anywhere, but you're going to have a very different experience at Wharton and MIT. Or Yale and Columbia. These things are kind of useless because cultural fit for each specific person can't be quantified.

 

Here's a tip: take P&Q with a massive fucking grain of salt. The guy who runs it sells advertising to pretty much all schools outside the Top 10 (Darden being the worst offender). He has every incentive to post rankings that put schools like Ross and UVA and IESE and Duke high on whatever bullshit metric magazine editors can come up with because then they'll spend more advertising on his website and their magazine. The only thing anyone goes there for anyway is for that asshole Sandy to tell white and indian males they have a 20% shot at Tuck.

What the hell is culture ranking anyway? According to fucking who? Some asshole without an MBA at the Economist? They HATE US schools, that's why their actual metric grades "regional diversity" so high.

I know I have a great time doing certain things that others who go to HBS or SOM or Tuck might not like. It's about fit, not ranking.

OP, stop thinking about Bschool culture, you are at least 3 years and a quarterlife crisis away.

Array
 

LOL. This is so true. Sandy really talks out of his ass. I personally know this Indian girl who spent thousands on his "consulting services". He told her she had like https://www.linkedin.com/in/shruti-agarwal-ba3002b0/

PS, this is surprising because Indians are already at disadvantage as they're overly represented in b-schools apps so the competition is tough almost every year

 

Culture is a surprisingly important factor for choosing a business school, but it cannot really be quantified as it will differ for each person. Certainly one could not not take whatever this survey methodology is at face value due to the lack of spread.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

Poets and Quants is a terrible site. "Rankings" like this are garbage.

MBA is not undergrad. The decision on which school to attend should be ruthlessly pragmatic and utilitarian.

In order of importance:

  1. Go to the best school you get into.
  2. Determine which school has robust OCR for the companies and industries you're interested in. Getting non-OCR jobs is a pain in the ass, and career service will not be helpful.
  3. Use factors such as scholarship and location as tie-breakers if you are deciding between schools of roughly equal quality, reputation, and career placement.

Enjoy the best 2 years of your life because post-MBA life sucks monkey's balls.

 
Dances With Newfoundland:
Poets and Quants is a terrible site. "Rankings" like this are garbage.

MBA is not undergrad. The decision on which school to attend should be ruthlessly pragmatic and utilitarian.

In order of importance:

  1. Go to the best school you get into.
  2. Determine which school has robust OCR for the companies and industries you're interested in. Getting non-OCR jobs is a pain in the ass, and career service will not be helpful.
  3. Use factors such as scholarship and location as tie-breakers if you are deciding between schools of roughly equal quality, reputation, and career placement.

Enjoy the best 2 years of your life because post-MBA life sucks monkey's balls.

yeah right, the ranking ranges never change. the actual rank # is bullshit. No matter how terrible MIT and CBS are ranked, still MBA business schools">M7

 
champagnepaki:
Hey fellow monkeys, was browsing around and saw this.

I'm definitely considering B-School down the line (still in undergrad) but thought this is still some great information to know beforehand - and might be interesting to a lot of you considering an MBA. Berkeley and Stanford are sitting at the top, something that was surprising to me was that MIT and UCLA Anderson are at the bottom (granted, they all must have great culture since this is a TOP 15 list); i've heard a lot of great things about both schools respectively and was expecting them to be higher up.

2018 Best MBA Programs For Culture & Classmates

  1. California-Berkeley (Haas) | 4.68/5
  2. Stanford | 4.68/5
  3. IESE | 4.67/5
  4. University of Virginia (Darden) | 4.63/5
  5. Harvard Business School | 4.60/5
  6. Dartmouth (Tuck) | 4.57/5
  7. University of Michigan (Ross) | 4.57/5
  8. Duke (Fuqua) | 4.54/5
  9. UCLA (Anderson) | 4.54/5
  10. MIT (Sloan) | 4.53/5
  11. Northwestern (Kellogg) | 4.52/5
  12. HEC Paris | 4.52/5
  13. INSEAD | 4.51/5
  14. Columbia | 4.50/5
  15. Yale SOM | 4.47/5

How these MBA programs do so well at choosing an authentic candidate: “We look for someone who is willing to challenge themselves. They take risks and support others; it’s not just me first, but all of us together can create better things. Also, we want someone who values other people and other perspectives. They work hard and drop their egos and get things done.” - Soojin Kwan, MD of Full-Time MBA Admissions at UMich Ross.

I know some people don't care about culture and have one agenda. Those of you who have done your MBA, what do you think? From what i've read, the general consensus of MBA's is that the value is in the network that you build while there. Any disagreements with this list? What was your experience during your MBA? What makes a good class vs. a bad class culture at a program like this? What was the atmosphere or competitive nature like at your MBA program?

Source: The Economist, via Poets&Quants

What the f*ck...

 

At least for Asia, if you ever wanted prestige to get that CEO job, just go to (in US) Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, MIT and Yale. In Hong Kong, most bankers went to UK schools: LSE, Cambridge, and Oxford.

The rest - no one really has heard of it (even in China); people would still question very hard of the prestige. Even a really solid school like INSEAD, no one really know.

Usually, the conversation went like this: CEO Candidate: I went to a great school for MBA in US. Chairman/ Boss/ Hiring Guy: You mean Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, MIT and Yale? CEO Candidate: No. Chairman/ Boss/ Hiring Guy: Next!!!

Like if you went to Northwestern, Duke, UCLA - they are great schools for MBA but most people in Asia won't put them on the same league as Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, MIT and Yale.

A couple of friends went to Wharton. The bosses were not impressed cuz it is not Harvard.

 

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