First of all, you are to settle clearly what features are really important for you.  In general, people are looking for well-recognised brand, incredible international and all-inclusive community spirit, high-quality alumni, something located in the centre of one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.  People usually seek such business school that offers the time to develop a deep understanding of the subjects taught on the program while providing a student with the opportunity to reflect and explore different career options.  Studying environment is also rather important.  We long for an exciting surrounding in which to learn and share ideas in the atmosphere when a person is able to benefit from the experiences of people around while making his or her own unique contribution.  And all that located in a huge cosmopolitan city will assure the access to a wide variety of potential recruiters in both industry and finance.  For all these features we are looking for in business school rankings.

Being MBA ranked by a separate business school means having conducted several exploration tests that allow this or that school to occupy a certain place in the business school rankings.  For example, in the USA the universe of schools identified for inclusion in the survey was based on information from AACSB International, that is the major accrediting organization for business schools.  This list continues to provide the best objective source of information.  In 2004 schools having no traditional full-time programs and graduating 50 students at these programs were eliminated from the list of schools eligible to be MBA ranked.  A multivariate analysis known as hierarchical clustering based on the schools that recruiters said they had had contact with since some definite time helps to group schools according to the recruiters they share, based on where recruiters say they tend to recruit.

The following differentiating strategy of business school rankings includes enrollment, type of recruiting, starting salaries, geography, and whether the school is public or private.  A very interesting way of conducting a trustful survey was provided by the Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive.  So, they contacted recruiters by mail, having the access to use names and contact information given by the business schools.  Each recruiter was sent a unique password to ensure that no recruiter could take the survey more than once.  Then they were asked to identify all schools with which they had had recruiting experiences.  If a recruiter identifies more than three schools he is randomly assigned three of those schools to rate, so that the maximum number of schools rated by any one of the recruiter was three.  Business school rankings are also difficult, because sometimes recruiters provide unusual ratings and are removed from the overall list.  So, as a short summary we may conclude that business school rankings may comprise such elements as: mass appeal, the perception of the school by its students and people associated with the activity of this school and intended future supportive behaviour toward that school.