The Great Ganesha

Being of the academic persuasion, a side-effect of essentially having no real-world experience yet (I’m working on it), I find it quite amusing that people are so swayed by the so-called university rankings lists that come out every fall. In fact, many, many years ago, when I was applying for my undergrad here in the US, so many of my buddies kept spouting out rankings of schools, down to the first decimal point. Now, if only they had paid more attention to their application then perhaps they would be in a better place today.

But I digress. These rankings especially affect Business Schools and in particular, MBA programs. I get an MBA for “free” with my PhD (owing to a unique circumstance, for another post), so I’m not complaining, but I know so many people who are all into going to “grad school” and again, who spout all the rankings verbatim, that this article today in DealBook, the business blog of the NYT, caught my eye. It is a caution to all of those who pay too much attention to the Princeton Review rankings. They said,

Even allowing for the inexact science of ranking schools, Princeton Review’s lists are highly subjective. The company says that its findings stem from student surveys, many of which were filled online. Princeton Review is careful to note that its own opinion of the schools is absent, and that no one school is ranked best overall, unlike other surveys. [link]

Ranking schmanking, I say. Having worked closely with professors from top-tier schools as well as knowing people from top-tier schools down to middle-level ones, and having followed their career for some years I have learned two things:

Firstly, the quality of education is more-or-less the same across all of these institutions. You have the same level of politics, the same number of good teachers and good researchers (both of which, it seems, are mutually exclusive) and the same number of bad courses vs. good courses.

Secondly, even if you ignore the so-called quality of education, ultimately, it is what you choose to do with it that matters.

Yes, there are some advantages to coming from a high-ranked school. That is, some doors open easier for you in the industry. And if you are looking at a career in academia, then you’ve got somewhat of a handicap if you’re not from a top-tier school. But neither of these hindrances are permanent, nor are they debilitating. With a little extra effort, some chutzpah and some ingenuity, you can easily overcome these obstacles. In some cases, you can even turn things around to your advantage.

The bottomline? Focus on getting the best out of your education for yourself. Don’t worry about what others think about it. These superficial impressions are easily changed.

Ok, I’ll get off the soap-box now…

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