The PaGaLGuY.com Business School Rankings

[pagalguy]

After months of preparation, analysis and work; we present to you The PaGaLGuY.com Business School Ranking system. We have created a unique ranking system that will help you assess the standing of a business school nationwide.

([2008] PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings - Results)Update: Click here for PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings Results 2008!

As with all things PaGaLGuY.com, we turn to the knowledge of the crowds and the community to help us create the analysis that is required for the rankings. You can be a part of this ranking process – All you need to do is logon to PaGaLGuY.com - B-School Ranking , login and start the process. All it will take is two minutes of your time and you would have contributed your knowledge and insights into building India’s largest Business School Ranking project.

Your knowledge sharing is what makes you priceless and by sharing it with the world, you help create the largest crowd-sourced business school rankings in history. Work with us and login right away to PaGaLGuY.com - B-School Ranking .

Addition from Apurv's comments:

Why we did not go with Objective / Hard Data as a method for rankings?

Firstly if you haven't read it, here is a detailed description of our methodology - PaGaLGuY.com - B-School Ranking Methodology

This is a question that's going to crop up very frequently here, so thought I'd write our take on this, and here it is:

Objective rankings parameterize the b-school experience mainly into:

1. Faculty
2. Placements
3. Infrastructure
4. Intellectual Capital
5. Student feedback

I'll take each of these parameters and put forward why we thought that this was a step backward rather than forward when rating business schools. Some of it is the bitter truth, but it was important for us to cut the faff out in designing a rankings that was representative.

1. Faculty - objective rankings measure the number of years of teaching, number of PhDs, consulting experience, research, etc to rate faculty
Why it doesn't work - while there are a lot of PhD numbers in Indian b-schools, a PhD makes a difference if it is from a good university. In India, majority b-school faculty are recruits from the institute's own FPM programme, or from small town universities scattered across India. As for research, except in a few bschools in the creamy layer, there is little research of consequence happening in Indian bschools. Measuring faculty via hard data like trying to predict a cricketer's performance by measuring his vital statistics. Why fool ourselves of having ranked accurately through hard data?

Faculty that does make a difference in b-schools, and any b-school student would testify to that, is that which makes for a great classroom experience. Measuring that with hard data is not possible. Perhaps a perception survey of best profs in each b-school answered by the students, the results of which are integrated into a larger perception survey.

2. Placements - Cut-throat competition between b-schools has led to a situation where placements data shared by b-schools is suspect. We have seen deep enough into placements processes in b-schools to know that distorting facts to project higher average salaries is a game that has become a norm. Inflating the CTC, averaging by combining international salaries with domestic ones, over-highlighting certain data to hide some other data... the methods are as many as there are schools. The companies don't mind either because of the PR they receive in the process. We think that in such a scenario, comparing b-schools through hard placement data will end up being an exercise in vain. In fact it would amount to constructing a second lie over another.

3. Infrastructure - What exactly is good infrastructure and how does one rate it? India has 40 year old schools that have run-down campus buildings over several unused acres. Yet they probably provide better quality of education than a those with swank campuses. B-schools advertise various things like libraries with so many thousand journals, so many books, so many online subscriptions. You need to ask a b-school student how much of all this is actually used by MBA students in Indian b-schools, outside the exceptions. As for the infrastructure that matters, Google is available across Indian b-schools.

4. Intellectual Capital - Not conclusively quantifiable except in maybe 10 b-schools.

5. Student feedback - is always good.

Moreover, hard data, unless primary and verified, is questionable. Objective rankings that exist today rely on questionnaires sent to b-schools, the answers of which are taken on face value. Visiting even 100 schools for verification is so humongous a task that nobody has yet taken it up.

We sincerely believe that coming out with rankings just for the heck of it is not worth anyone's time. We are further saying upfront that this is NOT the definitive rankings of Indian business schools. However is is definitely what India thinks about business schools.

PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1. I didn't see some well-known B-schools in the survey questionnaire. Why?
A. A very good question! The reason for this is that the rankings survey system slices the 2,850 comparisons required to compare every one of 76 b-schools to every other into 57 randomly generated sets of 50 questions each. So when you proceed to take the survey, you get a randomly generated questionnaire, which is only one part of the larger survey. It is possible that your set did not have some b-school. Please read our methodology here ( PaGaLGuY.com - B-School Ranking Methodology ) to understand why things work the way they do. Rest assured, we have included the best known b-schools for sure in the rankings.

Q2. Perceptions could be wrong. Why didn't PaGaLGuY go along with using hard and objective data for rankings?
A. The answer to this question is at this link - http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/887973-post20.html (The PaGaLGuY.com Business School Rankings)

Q3. I have never heard of many b-schools in the survey. How am I expected to compare them?
Q4. How can you compare niche MBA schools to general MBA schools?
A. The answers to both questions are at this link - http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/889417-post41.html (The PaGaLGuY.com Business School Rankings)

Q5. When will the results be out?
A. We'll wait for several thousand responses so that the final results is very very accurate. But we'll definitely release the results before the CAT 2007 results. Until then, we would need your help in spreading the word. Remember, the more the people answer this survey, the more it ends up helping us all!

Ask away any questions you have

[mbaankit]

How do u take into account single user signing up with multiple user names and influencing the rankings??
how do u make sure all data points are relevant??

lastly (because i am a bit surprised on this), what made you go for a 'perception' based rankings??
thanks a lot.
The questions have been posted not with any intention of starting a debate but just for my own sake so as to help me know better about this huge project and its conviction.
Ankit

[panky82]

Originally Posted by pagalguy

After months of preparation, analysis and work – we present to you The PaGaLGuY.com Business School Ranking system. We have created a unique ranking system that will help you assess the standing of a business school nationwide.




As with all things PaGaLGuY.com, we turn to the knowledge of the crowds and the community to help us create the analysis that is required for the rankings. You can be a part of this ranking process – All you need to do is logon to PaGaLGuY.com - B-School Ranking , login and start the process. All it will take is two minutes of your time and you would have contributed your knowledge and insights into building India’s largest Business School Ranking project.

Your knowledge sharing is what makes you priceless and by sharing it with the world, you help create the largest crowd-sourced business school rankings in history. Work with us and login right away to PaGaLGuY.com - B-School Ranking .


Ask away any questions you have

1 query:
when i tried to answer survey, the issue is i donot kno many of thes inst, worse havnt heard some of thos . (except for the obvious 20-25 ones), so hw to giv opinion abt thos schools...? i hope just guess wrk wont wrk.

[pagalguy]

Good questions ankit! Take a look at PaGaLGuY.com - B-School Ranking and let me know if they answer your questions. If not, let us discuss them

[pagalguy]

Originally Posted by panky82

1 query:
when i tried to answer survey, the issue is i donot kno many of thes inst, worse havnt heard some of thos . (except for the obvious 20-25 ones), so hw to giv opinion abt thos schools...? i hope just guess wrk wont wrk.

If you haven't heard of an institute completely, it is still fine. We are looking to you for your thoughts on the choice between two schools. So you rate the other institute you know higher. We have taken a large sample because we want to get a view across India and not just about the top schools everyone knows about

[hareshmandani]

Can't there be a third option of Don't know/Can't say? I mean some choices are too close. Or should we simply skip the question?

[pagalguy]

Originally Posted by hareshmandani

Can't there be a third option of Don't know/Can't say? I mean some choices are too close. Or should we simply skip the question?

You can't skip a question and this is with the logic that we are forcing people to make a decision. This logic is important because we want people to think as much and take a call on those schools with what they know until now. Perception until this point of time is the criteria and this could change over a period of time

[horrible]

Another good one from PG... I'm sure it will help people to choose a better institute for their MBA programme.

But since the process has just been put up, I'm hoping that PG is open to feedback, as it has always been. So here are the issues that I have

1) Where is IIM L and other IIMs like A,B,C when we choose our b-school in the initial form

2) While choosing the better one between two b-schools, one is always considerate of the value that he in particular is going to derive (or has derived) from a b-school. For example, any person interested in finance might rate C better than B, or a person interested in rural management may even rate IRMA better than any IIM. So, just a straight list of b-schools ordered from 1 to 100 will not be of much help to a person who is trying to meet a specific objective from his tenure at a b-school. Hence, it would be better to ask for a reason when someone chooses a b-school better than other. The reason could be said in a 2-3 words or single line. The reason thingy need not be made mandatory... it can be optional.

This will generate qualitative insights about a b-school, as perceived by the pg junta, and will go a long way in helping the people get important information about any b-school.

3) Moreover, the page doesn't proceed unless and until I do the comparison of all the b-schools. Simply put, I may not be sure of which one is better between SIMS and SIMSREE; yet I will not be able to proceed with the questionnaire unless I mark the choice. This will generate illogical data points and may tweak the rankings. Thus, it would be better to let junta leave a question unanswered it he/she is not sure.

That's it for now. Will like to have further opinion on these.

[pagalguy]

1) Where is IIM L and other IIMs like A,B,C when we choose our b-school in the initial form :O

Ah, shall be fixed

2) While choosing the better one between two b-schools, one is always considerate of the value that he in particular is going to derive (or has derived) from a b-school. For example, any person interested in finance might rate C better than B, or a person interested in rural management may even rate IRMA better than any IIM. So, just a straight list of b-schools ordered from 1 to 100 will not be of much help to a person who is trying to meet a specific objective from his tenure at a b-school. Hence, it would be better to ask for a reason when someone chooses a b-school better than other. The reason could be said in a 2-3 words or single line. The reason thingy need not be made mandatory... it can be optional.

You are right and you should realize that it is not our goal to be the ranking for everyone. If in a year finance is hot and people are rooting for finance schools, so be it. It should show up in the rankings and would definitely show up in the kind of rankings we have created. We are focussed on figuring out how the nation thinks about business schools. If you realize our methodology works for you, aspirants, recruiters - everybody. We might get into further niches as we build and update the system!

3) Moreover, the page doesn't proceed unless and until I do the comparison of all the b-schools. Simply put, I may not be sure of which one is better between SIMS and SIMSREE; yet I will not be able to proceed with the questionnaire unless I mark the choice. This will generate illogical data points and may tweak the rankings. Thus, it would be better to let junta leave a question unanswered it he/she is not sure.

I understand this is tough - but this is with good reason. We all know the top schools and the challenge is to figure out how the other schools are doing on a national level. We don't want to build a ranking system where there are regional biases. This is how India thinks.