University Times

Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business held steady in a worldwide MBA student ranking, but continued to fall in a survey of regional corporate recruiters.

Pitt remained at No. 73 in an international ranking released today by The Economist Intelligence Unit, which surveys MBA students. It fell to No. 46 in a recent Wall Street Journal-Harris Interactive survey of regional corporate recruiters. It had ranked No. 22 in 2004 and No. 37 in the 2005 WSJ/Harris survey.

The Economist survey collected data last spring from students and recent MBA program graduates. Its rankings are based on four main criteria: new career opportunities, personal development and educational experience, salary increase and potential to network.

The career opportunities measure is made up of the number of industry sectors recruiting at a school, the percentage of graduates in jobs three months after graduation, the percentage who found jobs through a school’s career service office and a student rating of career services.

The personal development measure judged the faculty-student ratio, percentage of faculty with PhDs and student assessment of faculty. It also took into account students’ average GMAT score and length of work experience; percentage of foreign and women students; range of overseas programs; languages offered, and student ratings of culture and classmates; program content, and facilities and services.

The salary increase criterion calculated pre-to-post MBA salary change as well as the post-MBA salary figure itself.

The networking criterion judged the ratio of alumni to students, the ratio of students to overseas alumni branches and a student assessment of the alumni network.

Data from the past three years were weighted to calculate the current ranking “to provide a rounded picture of the school,” according to an Economist press release.

The Economist’s 2006 top three schools were IESE Business School at the University of Navarra, Spain; followed by Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Other Pennsylvania-based schools making the list were: The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (17), Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business (28) and Penn State’s Smeal College of Business (48).

Complete survey results will be published in The Economist’s annual “Which MBA?” guide, due out Oct. 13.

The WSJ/Harris survey asked recruiters to rate the schools at which they had recruited since September 2004 in online interviews conducted between mid-December 2005 and mid-March 2006.

Three separate rankings emerged: international, national and regional, based on where the respondents tended to recruit.

The national and regional schools rankings were based on an average of this year’s and last year’s results.

Pitt ranked No. 46 based on regional recruiters’ responses; the University did not appear on the national or international recruiters’ lists. Harris spokeswoman Michelle Soto attributed Pitt’s ranking to a decline in ratings on the 21 attributes combined with gains made by other regional schools.

Katz Dean John Delaney, who took the helm of the business school in August, could not be reached for comment.

In the survey of regional recruiters, Thunderbird’s Garvin School of International Management in Glendale, Ariz., took the top ranking. Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business and Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management rounded out the top three.

In addition to Pitt, Penn State made the WSJ/Harris regional list at No. 23.

Three components figure into the WSJ/Harris rankings: perception — based on 21 attributes influencing a recruiter’s decision to visit a campus; supportive behavior — whether the recruiter expected to recruit at a school within the next two years and whether he or she likely would make an offer to a student there, and mass appeal — the number of respondents who said they recruited from a particular school.

The attributes included the students’ ability to work in a team, analytical and problem-solving skills, commitment to corporate social responsibility (such as community service and environmental protection), communication and interpersonal skills, fit within the corporate culture, leadership potential, potential to be a “star” likely to be promoted, personal ethics and integrity, strategic thinking, average years of work experience, international knowledge and experience, well-roundedness, work ethic and willingness to relocate to the required job location.

Also rated were the schools’ curriculum content, career services office, faculty expertise, the overall value of the recruiting effort’s cost, the recruiter’s general like or dislike of the students overall and success with past hires. New on the list was the incorporation of experiential learning into the program.

The WSJ/Harris ranking for schools that drew recruiters from across the nation showed the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in first place, followed by Dartmouth and CMU.

CMU and Penn (7) were the only Pennsylvania-based schools on the national recruiters’ list.

The WSJ/Harris survey of international recruiters put Escuela Superior de Administracion y Dirreccion de Empresas and Law School of Spain first, followed by IMD Institute for Management Development of Switzerland and El Instituto Panamericano de Alta Direccion de Empresa of Mexico. Penn (17) was the lone Pennsylvania school on the international list.

The rankings appeared in a special section of the Sept. 20 Wall Street Journal.

—Kimberly K. Barlow