Specialty Rankings: MBA Programs Show Strengths

Most MBA programs are good at something, even if they're not ranked among the greats. Lower-ranked schools take top honors for accounting, marketing, and more

By Geoff Gloeckler

An MBA class at the University of Rochester's Simon Graduate School of Business, which landed in the top 10 in five academic specialties.

(Corrects name of school that ranked in the top ten for eight academic specialties in the third graph, and number of top ten rankings achieved by the University of Rochester Simon Graduate School of Business in the photo caption.)

For prospecitve students—as with employers—B-schools are not one-size-fits-all when it comes to meeting specific needs. An MBA program that is strong in finance may not be the best choice for someone looking for a job in accounting. But how can MBA aspirants know what schools top companies target to fill positions in certain areas or functions? Look no further.

As part of Bloomberg Businessweek's 2010 ranking of top MBA programs, corporate recruiters at more than 600 companies that hire the most MBAs were asked to provide opinions on which schools produce the strongest graduates in such functional areas as marketing, global business, accounting, and communication skills. They were also asked program-specific questions, such as which schools are most improved in career services. Using this data, we have created a ranking of specific areas, or specialties, within the MBA programs themselves.

As can be expected, the top-ranked schools overall fare quite well in the specialty ranking, but they aren't the only schools earning high marks. Second-ranked Harvard Business School (HBS Full-Time MBA Profile) appears in the top 10 on eight of the specialty lists, the same number as the MBA program at Northeastern University (Northeastern Full-Time MBA Profile), ranked 56th overall. Of the 57 ranked MBA programs in the U.S., 68 percent appear in the top 10 of at least one of the specialty lists, and 83 percent of the 18 ranked international programs appear in at least one top-10 list.

Deserving a Closer Look

In some specialties, some of the lower-ranked schools rub shoulders with the most elite programs. Take the marketing specialty. Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management (Kellogg Full-Time MBA Profile) is, by a large margin, the first choice for recruiters looking for MBAs well-versed in the specialty area.But what about Boston College's 50th-ranked Carroll School of Management (Carroll Full-Time MBA Profile) or University of Washington's Foster School of Business (Foster Full-Time MBA Profile), No.31, the schools that follow Kellogg in the marketing ranks? True, they may not leap to mind when it comes to the specialty area, but in the eyes of recruiters, these programs deserve a closer look.The same is true in accounting, where the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business (Booth Full-Time MBA Profile)—the No.1 school overall—is tied for top spot with 25th-ranked McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas-Austin (McCombs Full-Time MBA Profile).

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