Executive MBA Rankings

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How do you prevent cheating?
Statisticians David M. Rindskopf and Alan L. Gross, professors of educational psychology at City University of New York Graduate Center use a series of statistical analyses to test the responses for patterns that have a low probability of occurring if the students are answering the questions honestly. Questionable responses that might be the result of coaching by school officials or other forms of cheating are discarded, and may be grounds for elimination from the ranking.

Why do you only rank 25 EMBA programs in the magazine?
Space constraints prevent us from listing more than 25 programs.

In the table that accompanies the ranking story, where do the letter grades come from?
In the EMBA table, we typically include three letter grades for each ranked program—teaching, curriculum, and support, although this varies from ranking to ranking. They represent the assessment of the EMBA graduates about those aspects of their program. Each of those grades is based on one or more questions in the student survey pertaining to teaching, curriculum, and support. The top 20% in each category earns A+s. The next 25% receives As, the next 35% receive Bs, and the bottom 20% get Cs. There are no Ds or Fs awarded. The questions used for the letter grades do not represent the survey in its entirety. Therefore it is possible for a highly ranked program to receive one or more low letter grades, and a poorly ranked program to receive one or more high letter grades.

What role, if any, do schools play in the surveys, beyond providing e-mail addresses?
The schools have no other role in the rankings. However, they do complete surveys of their own to provide statistical data. That data is then used to create an online profile for each program that appears on BusinessWeek.com.

Do the schools have any input into the content of the surveys? Is the student survey ever provided to schools?
The surveys are prepared by BusinessWeek. Schools, while they may provide input from time to time, do not decide which questions to ask or how to ask them. This is necessary to maintain the integrity and independence of the ranking process. To prevent schools from coaching students on how to answer the survey, the survey is not made available to schools.

Are schools permitted to communicate with their students about the student survey?
BusinessWeek cannot prevent schools from communicating with their students. However, they should not coach students either directly or through the media—such as student newspapers—on how to answer the survey. Nor should they make any statements that emphasize the importance of a high ranking or in any other way attempt to prevent students from answering the survey honestly. Any evidence of coaching will be taken very seriously by BusinessWeek and may be grounds for eliminating a school from the rankings.

Is the data collected from the schools for the online statistical profiles used in the ranking?
No.

What happens if a school doesn't fill out the survey for the statistical profile by the deadline?
The profile will not be created. If a school only partially completes the survey, those questions left unanswered will be filled in with an NA.

How do you find students to interview?
In addition to traditional reporting methods such as campus visits, BusinessWeek will contact students directly via phone or e-mail, but only if they indicate on the survey that they are willing to be interviewed for a story.

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