M.B.A. Survey: Something Old, Something New
Michigan has retaken the top spot this year. But the winner's circle also includes two newcomers.
The lead in The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive ranking of America's top National business schools seesawed again this year, with the University of Michigan reclaiming the No. 1 spot from Dartmouth College.
Michigan and Dartmouth are clearly the schools to beat, with Dartmouth having achieved a first-place finish in three of the Journal's six annual rankings and Michigan now having scored two wins. (The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School is the only school that has succeeded in besting Dartmouth and Michigan.)
THE WINNERS
See snapshots of top schools and highlights from the rankings. Plus see profiles on the top schools:
National picks:
1. University of Michigan (Ross)
2. Dartmouth College (Tuck)
3. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
4. Columbia University
5. University of California, Berkeley (Haas)
Regional picks:
1. Thunderbird (Garvin)
2. Ohio State University (Fisher)
3. Brigham Young University (Marriott)
4. Purdue University (Krannert)
5. Michigan State University (Broad)
International picks:
1. ESADE
2. IMD, International Institute for Management Development
3. IPADE
4. London Business School
5. Thunderbird (Garvin)
? See the complete Wall Street Journal Guide to the Top Business Schools.
Our other two rankings produced some surprises, as two less prominent newcomers placed first in the Regional and International categories. Arizona's Thunderbird moves up from No. 4 last year in the ranking of regional U.S. schools, while ESADE in Barcelona, Spain, leads a group of European, North American and Central American schools in the International ranking.
Michigan owes its first-place showing in part to its emphasis on practical experience in its M.B.A. program. Recruiters say they prize Michigan graduates because they can connect theory with practice. As for Thunderbird and ESADE, they share an international focus and even happen to be partners through a dual-degree program of study at both schools.
A commitment to ethics and corporate social responsibility also distinguishes all three of the top-ranked schools -- from Michigan's student projects in developing countries to ESADE's "Christian humanism" tradition of management education to the oath of ethical conduct signed by Thunderbird graduates.
Looking Beyond Academics
The three rankings measure how appealing business schools are to the corporate recruiters who hire their M.B.A. graduates. What differentiates each ranking is the type of recruiters the schools attract. But the ratings of all 85 schools across the three rankings are based on how recruiters evaluated them on the same 21 attributes, as well as the recruiter's intention to return and hire a school's graduates over the next two years. In addition, the rankings include a "mass appeal" factor, which is the number of recruiters that the National and Regional schools attract. For the International ranking, the mass-appeal measure was changed this year so that schools can qualify for it only if they attract recruiters who place a large number of their graduates in jobs outside the U.S.
WALL STREET JOURNAL VIDEO
News editor Ronald Alsop discusses the winners of this year's Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive ranking of America's top business schools.Harris Interactive conducted the online survey of 4,125 recruiters (up from 3,267 respondents in 2005) from Dec. 13, 2005, to March 16, 2006 -- with respondents rating only schools where they said they had recent recruiting experience. To qualify for any of the three rankings, a school had to receive at least 20 recruiter ratings.
The rankings aren't necessarily a reflection of the schools with the most celebrated academic reputations. Although the 21 attributes include the curriculum and faculty, academic quality isn't the primary concern of most survey respondents. Instead, they care most about the M.B.A. students' interpersonal and communication skills, teamwork orientation, personal ethics and integrity, analytical and problem-solving abilities, and work ethic.
That helps explain why some of the most renowned schools, such as Harvard and Stanford, don't rank as highly in the survey as their academic stature might suggest. While recognizing the brainpower of their students and faculty, recruiters complain that they often find graduates of some of the most prestigious institutions more arrogant and less collegial than the M.B.A.s they meet at other schools. Some of the large, elite schools also don't seem to enjoy as many close, personal relationships with recruiters as smaller M.B.A. programs do, and their career-service offices tend to receive lower scores for customer service.
Overall, the survey respondents appeared happier with the schools this year, giving generally higher ratings on the 21 attributes and indicating that they plan to continue recruiting at the same schools. More than half of the recruiters said they believe the quality of M.B.A. graduates is the same or better today compared with past years.
More Jobs at Higher Pay
Companies are hiring far more M.B.A.s -- and at higher salaries -- than a few years ago when demand dropped dramatically. In the survey, nearly a quarter of the respondents said they would pay starting salaries of more than $100,000 this year, compared with 17% in 2005. And 62% said they had raised salaries, up from 48% last year.
RANKING THE ATTRIBUTES
Recruiters rated the business schools and their M.B.A. students on these 21 attributes. Here are the percentages of recruiters who said the attribute is "very important" to them. Plus, recruiters share their views on leadership and more.
89.0%: Communication and interpersonal skills
86.9: Ability to work well within a team
86.2: Personal ethics and integrity
84.3: Analytical and problem-solving skills
82.9: Work ethic*
74.5: Fit with the corporate culture
74.0: Success with past hires
72.5: Leadership potential
67.1: Strategic thinking
64.9: Likelihood of recruiting "stars"
53.9: Willingness of students to relocate to the required job location
50.7: Well-rounded
43.2: Student "chemistry"
38.0: Content of the core curriculum
35.7: Students' years of work experience
31.7: Overall value for the money invested in the recruiting effort
29.0: Incorporates experiential learning into the curriculum*
27.1: Career-services office
25.9: Faculty expertise
21.0: Students' international knowledge and experience
16.7: Commitment to corporate social responsibility
*New attributes this year.Even with the markedly better job market, recruiters say students haven't become too greedy or demanding -- at least not yet.
"This year may have been the sweet spot," says Maury Hanigan, who runs an M.B.A. talent-scouting service for companies. "Students still felt hungry, so you didn't see a lot of arrogance, and companies made better, but not outlandish, offers."
Generally, she adds, companies were pleased with the students they hired, although some didn't snag as many as they would have liked.
Recruiters do feel grumpy about one thing: a decline in the quantity and quality of M.B.A. students' work experience. Many schools recently relaxed their experience requirements and started admitting greener students, partly in response to a steep slide in the number of applications and partly because they hope to attract more young women and minorities.
Long accustomed to interviewing M.B.A.s with a four-year to five-year track record in the workplace, recruiters complain that now they're seeing more and more students who worked only a year or two before returning to business school. What's more, their credentials aren't very impressive because they didn't work long enough to be given much responsibility or to serve in leadership positions.
"It isn't just the amount of real-world experience," says Ms. Hanigan. "It's the relevance of the experience. Companies hope to find M.B.A. graduates who know their industry and speak the language. If they don't bring that experience and knowledge, the ramp-up time after they start working is so long."
That's the concern of Brad Beggs, a survey respondent who works in real-estate appraisal and consulting in St. Louis. "Hiring students with less work experience is difficult because they have unreasonable expectations about compensation, benefits and authority," he says. "Meanwhile, they may be less productive and require more training."
National Ranking
Why do Dartmouth and the University of Michigan so dominate the top spot in the rankings?
Paul Danos, dean of Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, may know better than anyone. A professor and senior associate dean at Michigan's Ross School of Business before moving to Tuck in 1995, Dr. Danos sees several similarities.
"Both schools have achieved a very good balance between faculty research and commitment to teaching, which I think resonates with employers," he says. "They also have nice students who aren't self-centered. It's a myth that companies want hard-edged employees who will drive their fellow workers into the ground."
The 19 schools in this year's National ranking share many of the same recruiters, primarily large companies that hire students from a broad range of the most prominent business schools and pay the highest salaries.
The majority of the National schools are private, and more than half are located in the Eastern U.S. All six of the Ivy League universities with business schools are part of the National ranking.
One Ivy League school, Columbia University, and the University of California at Berkeley moved into the top five for the first time. But recruiters favor them for quite different reasons. Those rating Berkeley cite its M.B.A. students' collegiality, creativity and technology bent, while Columbia graduates' finance expertise and competitive drive appeal to recruiters.
Duke University also made strides in the ranking this year, jumping five places to No. 12. The school received especially high ratings from recruiters at consumer-products and health-care companies. Some recruiters said the career-services office has improved and students are better prepared for job interviews.
"Over the past several years, I have seen Duke's Fuqua School attract students with more work experience, more diverse cultural and industry backgrounds, and a great desire to embrace a variety of business challenges," says Michael Mott, a finance and business-development manager at Microsoft Corp.
The University of Southern California suffered one of the biggest declines, dropping to 15th place from 10th last year, as some recruiters reported a decline in the quality of students they interviewed.
Some students at USC's Marshall School of Business "did not have a lot of work experience between their undergraduate and graduate school terms," says Chris DeBeer, a manager at Hyperion Solutions Corp. "All of the candidates were very intelligent and seemed to have gained a lot from the program, but the ability to combine their education with a deeper level of work experience was what I was looking for and did not get from the candidates I received résumés from."
Regional Ranking
Thunderbird upset two-time Regional champ Purdue University this year and also emerged in fifth place in the International ranking, making it the only Regional school in both lists.
Being both regional and global may seem like an oxymoron, but Thunderbird attracts an unusual blend of recruiters -- both from local companies in the Southwest and from multinational firms. Since it was founded in 1946, Thunderbird has made educating students for international management careers its mission. Recruiters say they also like the entrepreneurial spirit of Thunderbird students.
The 50 other Regional schools tend to attract recruiters based primarily in their home area or neighboring states. The Regional ranking is pretty evenly split between private and public universities that are spread across the U.S. Regional recruiters are more apt to visit a single business school and pay lower salaries than National recruiters.
The large Regional ranking tends to have the biggest swings from year to year. The University of Georgia, Fordham University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Pittsburgh and Emory University were among the schools that fell furthest in this ranking.
Recruiters criticized some of the Regional schools for lowering their standards and admitting less-qualified students when their applications plummeted a couple of years ago.
But a lower ranking doesn't necessarily mean recruiters have soured on the school. Some schools, including Indiana University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Arizona, maintained similar overall scores this year. Yet they dropped in the ranking because other M.B.A. programs received significantly higher scores and eight new schools entered the ranking. Louisiana State University, for instance, made its debut at No. 9.
"Higher admission standards for the LSU M.B.A. program are paying off," says James Maurin, chairman of Stirling Properties in Covington, La. In addition, "their education tracks are better focused on the needs of companies in the region. There is a strong emphasis on small business and entrepreneurship, and I have been hiring from this pool of students."
Among the biggest gainers this year were the University of Texas, Georgetown University and the University of Florida.
Recruiters believe Georgetown's new dean and career-services director have made speedy progress in producing more polished, marketable graduates. "Georgetown M.B.A. students are confident and proficient at their work without being cocky, which in a consulting environment is absolutely critical to effective team dynamics," says Mark Huson, a management consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton. "It's something that I've seen translated into very solid work -- minus the self-promotion that many M.B.A.s seem prone to."
Another consulting-industry recruiter finds higher-caliber students at the University of Texas. "We have found more students that both have the intelligential horsepower to do strategy-operations consulting and fit our collaborative culture," says Frank Duffy of Deloitte Consulting.
Florida received particularly positive reviews for the relationships recruiters have forged with its career-services office. Wesley Edwards, a senior vice president at Jabil Circuit Inc. in St. Petersburg, Fla., likes recruiting at Florida's Warrington College of Business because the career-services director works closely with him to match specific students to his job requirements. "He doesn't just throw a bunch of résumés at me," Mr. Edwards says. "This helps greatly in expediting the recruitment process."
International Ranking
The International list includes nine schools from the two U.S. rankings, along with nine European, three Canadian and three Latin American schools.
While Europe's ESADE, IMD and London Business School dominate the top end of the ranking, the Americas claim the other seven spots in the top 10. In addition to Thunderbird, Columbia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also received high ratings. So did Canada's University of Western Ontario and three Latin American schools: IPADE and Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico and INCAE in Costa Rica.
Because of the revision in the methodology for the International ranking, it's impossible to make accurate year-to-year comparisons. But the top five schools remain nearly identical to last year's group.
ESADE, however, moved ahead of IMD, the International Institute for Management Development, which had been No. 1 for two straight years. Most recruiters cite ESADE's international culture as its greatest asset. About a quarter of its students are Spanish; the rest come from some 30 other countries.
Close behind is the team-player mentality of its graduates. ESADE graduates "have the attitude to be good team members in the sense that they tend to be active listeners, build on the ideas of others and reinforce the other team members," says Beatriz Olvera Arias, director of human-resources development at TUI Espa?a, a travel company. "What you find in the ESADE profile is more of a willingness to cooperate with others, even if they are competitors in the market, than to compete against them."
No. 2 IMD is one of the world's most distinctive schools, with its highly selective boutique M.B.A. program that grooms experienced managers for senior leadership positions. IMD graduates are especially valuable to companies that don't put M.B.A.s through a structured training program.
"We need people to learn fast and make an impact as soon as possible," says Lawrence Ganti, a director of market development at biotech firm Serono International. "The past management experience of IMD's M.B.A. students means we do not have to baby-sit newbies back into the business world."
最新排名报告：老面孔 新面孔
《华尔街日报》和Harris Interactive今年再度公布了美国顶级全国性商学院的排名榜，这一次密歇根大学(University of Michigan)取代了达特茅斯学院(Dartmouth College)排名榜首。
密歇根和达特茅斯显然是美国全国性商学院中的佼佼者，在《华尔街日报》发布这一年度排名榜的6年中，达特茅斯学院有3年都位居榜首，而密歇根大学算上这一次也已两度折桂。(宾夕法尼亚大学的沃顿学院是在这一排名中唯一赢过上述两校的商学院。)
相关报导
? 密歇根大学重回榜首
? 雷鸟──变革的典范
? ESADE──商业和社会责任教育并重
? 2006年商学院排名报告：排名榜
我们的其他两个排名榜也出现了一些出人意料的情况，因为两家不太知名的新星分别在地区性和国际性商学院排名榜中居首。亚利桑那州的雷鸟商学院(Thunderbird)在美国地区性商学院排名中由去年的第四位升至今年的第一位，而西班牙巴塞罗纳的ESADE商学院则在今年的国际性商学院排名中夺魁，领先于所有欧洲、北美洲和中美洲的其他商学院。
密歇根大学今年能取得第一名的好成绩部分应归功于其MBA项目对实践经验的重视。招聘人员说，他们之所以看好密歇根大学的毕业生，是因为这些学生能做到理论和实践相结合。至于雷鸟商学院和ESADE，它们的MBA项目都强调国际性，这两所学校还是合作伙伴，双方共同推出了一个双学位教学项目。
强调道德和企业的社会责任也是这三所学校卓尔不群的原因，密歇根大学为学生安排了到发展中国家实习的项目，ESADE则在其管理学教育中强调了“基督教人道主义”传统，而雷鸟商学院的毕业生需要签署遵守道德准则的保证书。
推出这三个排名榜是为了衡量各商学院对于打算招募MBA项目毕业生的企业招聘人员所具有的吸引力。这三个排名榜的不同之处在于它们分别考察了各商学院对三种不同种类招募人员的吸引力。但85所上榜学校的排名都是基于招聘人员根据21项统一标准给它们的打分以及这些招聘人员未来两年中重返某所学校招募毕业生的意愿度统计出来的。此外，这一排名还包括一项“魅力度”指标，它反映了各所全国性和地区性商学院都吸引了多少招聘人员前来招募毕业生。在今年的国际性商学院排名中，“魅力度”指标作了改动，来校招聘的人员只有准备把所招聘的毕业生大部分都安排到美国以外工作岗位时才会入围这一指标。
在2005年12月13日至2006年3月16日期间，Harris Interactive对4,125名招聘人员(2005年时调查了3,267名招聘人员)进行了网上调查，受访者只需对他们不久前曾去招聘过毕业生的商学院进行打分。一所商学院要想在这三个排名榜中的任何一个上榜，都必须获得至少20名招聘人员的评分。
那些学术声望最高的学校未必能在这一排名榜上名列前茅。虽然在据以打分的21项指标中包括课程质量和师资力量指标，但多数受访者最关心的并非是学校的学术质量。他们反而最关心MBA学生的人际交往和沟通能力、团队精神、个人品行、分析和解决问题的能力以及职业道德。
人们由此可以明白，为什么哈佛和斯坦福等最知名的商学院在这一排名榜上的位置并不像它们的学术地位那样高。虽然招聘人员承认这些最知名学府的毕业生和教师都很有智慧，但他们同时也抱怨说，某些这类学校的毕业生太傲慢，人缘不及那些普通商学院的毕业生好。某些这类精英型商学院似乎并未像普通商学院那样与招聘人员建立起密切的个人关系，它们的就业指导机构在为招聘单位服务方面的得分也往往较低。
受访者今年对各商学院的总体满意度有所提高，他们依据21项指标给出的评分普遍高于上年，这些受访者都打算继续到今年造访过的学校进行招聘。一半以上的受访招聘人员说，他们认为今年MBA毕业生的质量等同于或者好于去年。
各用人单位今年招聘的MBA毕业生要大大多于几年前，当时MBA毕业生的社会需求量曾大幅下降，而且用人单位给MBA毕业生开出的工资也比几年前要高。调查发现，近四分之一的受访者说他们今年给MBA毕业生定的起薪要高于100,000美元，这一比例2005年时是17%。62%的受访者说他们已经上调了MBA毕业生的起薪，而去年的这一比例是48%。
尽管就业环境有了显着改善，但招聘人员表示，学生们并未变得过分贪婪或苛求──至少目前还没有。
为企业从事MBA毕业生搜寻服务的莫里?哈尼根(Maury Hanigan)说：“今年可能是(MBA毕业生就业市场的)好年景，学生们仍有些 不择食，所以他们没有表现出过分的傲慢，而企业开出的薪酬条件也有提高，但并不过分。”
她还说，企业普遍对它们招募的学生感到满意，虽然有些企业并没有用完他们的招聘名额。
招聘人员感到不满的一点是：MBA学生的工作经历无论数量还是质量都有下降。许多商学院近来在招生时放宽了对工作经验的要求，开始招收工作经验更少的学生，这既是因为申请读MBA的学生大幅减少，也是因为学校想招收更多女性和少数族裔学生。
招聘人员早就习惯了面试有四至五年工作经历的MBA毕业生，他们现在抱怨说，越来越多的人大学毕业后只工作一到两年就重返学校去读MBA了。这些新一代MBA毕业生也缺乏响当当的工作履历，他们因为就业时间不够长，因此还没有被工作单位委以重任或担任领导职务。
哈尼根说：“这不只是个工龄长短的问题，关键是要具备用人单位需要的工作经验。企业希望找到熟悉其所从事行业的MBA毕业生，希望来面试的人不要尽说外行话。如果招聘来的人不具备相关工作经验和专业知识，他们就职后的适应期就会很长。”
这正是此次调查的受访者之一布拉德?贝格斯(Brad Beggs)所担心的，他就职于一家房地产评估和咨询公司。他说：“人们不愿招募工作经验少的学生，因为他们对薪酬、福利和职权有着不合理的预期。而这些人可能还不大顶用，需要接受更多培训。”
达特茅斯学院和密歇根大学为什么总能在排名榜上名列前茅呢？
达特茅斯学院塔克商学院(Tuck School of Business)的院长保罗?达诺思(Paul Danos)在这个问题上可能最有发言权。达诺思在1995年到塔克商学院任职前曾担任密歇根大学罗斯商学院(Ross School of Business)的教授和副院长，他认为这两所商学院有几点共同之处。
他说：“两所学院在教师的科研和教学之间都取得了很好的平衡，我认为这正是用人单位希望看到的。它们的学生也不错，不以自我为中心。没有用人单位希望招募不懂得通融的人，这些人无法与同事友好相处。”
今年登上全国性商学院排名榜的19所学校接待的招聘人员往往都是同一批人，这些人主要来自大企业，此类企业对最杰出商学院的毕业生兼容并蓄，它们给毕业生开出的工资也是最高的。
大多数上榜的全国性商学院都是私立大学，其中一半以上都位于美国东部。常春藤联盟(Ivy League)中六所有商学院的大学全都上了全国性商学院排名榜。
属于常春藤联盟的哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)以及加州大学伯克利分校(University of California at Berkeley)是首次进入这一排名榜的前五名。但招聘人员喜欢它们的原因却不同。那些给伯克利分校打高分的人认为该校的MBA毕业生人缘好、有创造性、科技素养高，而哥伦比亚大学毕业生的金融知识和竞争意识则博得了招聘人员的青睐。
杜克大学(Duke University)在今年排名榜上的名次大幅跃升了5位，排名升至第12位。消费产品公司和医疗保健类企业对该校的打分尤其高。一些招聘人员说，杜克大学就业指导部门的工作有了改善，该校学生参加面试时也作了更充分的准备。
微软公司(Microsoft Corp.)的财务和业务拓展经理迈克尔?莫特(Michael Mott)说：“过去几年中，我看到杜克大学的法奎商学院(Fuqua School)吸引了有更多工作经验、文化背景和行业背景更加多元化的学生前来就读，这些学生应对各类商业挑战的意愿也更强烈。”
而南加州大学(University of Southern California)在排名榜上的跌幅则最大，从去年的第10位降至今年的第15位，因为一些招聘人员反映说他们所面试学生的质量不如去年。
Hyperion Solutions Corp.的经理克里斯?德彼尔(Chris DeBeer)说，南加州大学马歇尔商学院(Marshall School of Business)的一些学生“在大学毕业之后到读研究生之前这段时间的工作经历不多。所有的应选学生都很聪明而且似乎从MBA课程中学到了很多东西，但将所受教育与更高水平的工作经验结合起来的能力才是我所期待的，但我从学生们递来的简历中没有发现它。”
雷鸟商学院今年在地区性商学院排名榜上将曾连续两年位居榜首的普渡大学(Purdue University)挤了下去，该校还在今年的国际性商学院排名榜上位居第五，成为了唯一一所在这两个排名榜上都有一席之地的地区性商学院。
虽然地区性商学院和国际性商学院这两个身份看似有些矛盾，但雷鸟商学院确实吸引了两类不同的招聘人员，一类来自美国西南地区的本国企业，另一类则来自跨国公司。自从1946年成立以来，雷鸟商学院一直致力于培养适合为跨国企业工作的学生。招聘人员们还说，他们喜欢雷鸟商学院学生身上的企业家精神。
其他上榜的50所地区性商学院吸引的多是些其所在州或邻近州用人单位的招聘人员。这些大学中私立和公立大学几乎各占一半，它们遍布美国各地。地区性用人单位的招聘人员更愿意只到一家商学院去招募人员，他们给出的工资也比全国性用人单位要低。
地区性商学院排名榜各年之间的变化是这三个排名榜中变化最大的。佐治亚大学(University of Georgia)、福德汉姆大学(Fordham University)、华盛顿大学圣路易斯分校(Washington University in St. Louis)、匹兹堡大学(University of Pittsburgh)和艾茱莉大学(Emory University)是今年排名榜上跌幅最大的几所学校。
招聘人员批评一些地区性商学院说，当申请入学人数几年前大幅减少时，这些学校降低了招生标准，招收了一些不太合格的学生。
但某所学校排名下降并不一定意味着招聘人员对它存在恶感。印第安纳大学(Indiana University)、南美以美大学(Southern Methodist University)和亚利桑那大学(University of Arizona)等院校今年的得分与去年相同，但它们在排名榜上的名次却下降了，原因是其他大学MBA项目今年的得分大幅上扬以及又有八所学校新挤入了排名榜。以路易斯安那州立大学(Louisiana State University)为例，它首次上榜就名列第九。
Stirling Properties的董事长詹姆士?墨林(James Maurin)说：“提高招生标准正使路易斯安那州立大学获得回报，该校在重点满足本地企业的人才需求方面也做得更好。这所学校很注意从小企业主中招募学生，而我一直在从这类学生中寻找雇员。”
得克萨斯大学(University of Texas)、乔治城大学(Georgetown University)和佛罗里达大学(University of Florida)是今年在排名榜上升幅最大的院校。
招聘人员相信，乔治城大学商学院的新任院长以及该校就业指导部门的负责人在培养更优秀、更受市场欢迎的毕业生方面取得了快速进步。Booz Allen Hamilton的管理咨询师马克?休森(Mark Huson)说：“乔治城大学的MBA毕业生自信、专业、不骄傲，这些品质在咨询业中对团队士气有很大影响。我认为具有这些品质的人可以做出非常出色的工作，而许多MBA毕业生常常表现出的自我推销倾向则对工作不利。”
另一位来自咨询业的招聘人员发现得克萨斯大学的学生有较高才干。Deloitte Consulting的弗兰克?杜菲(Frank Duffy)说：“我们发现了更多既有从事咨询工作的聪明才智又能适应我们公司合作文化的学生。”
招聘人员对佛罗里达大学的就业指导部门与他们形成的密切关系给予了特别高的评价。Jabil Circuit Inc.的高级副总裁韦斯利?爱德华兹(Wesley Edwards)喜欢到佛罗里达大学的沃灵顿商学院(Warrington College of Business)去招募学生，因为该校就业指导部门的负责人会与他密切合作挑选最适合的学生来满足他的用人需求。爱德华兹说：“他不是把一叠个人简历丢给我就算完事了。”爱德华兹认为这位负责人的密切配合使招募进程大大加快。
在国际性商学院排名榜上，有9所美国学校(它们也出现在另两个排名榜上)、9所欧洲学校、3所加拿大学校和3所拉美学校。
虽然ESADE、IMD和伦敦商学院(London Business School)在这一排名榜上占据了前三位，但排名前十的其他商学院却都是美国学校。除雷鸟商学院外，哥伦比亚大学和麻省理工学院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)的商学院也都获得了高分。加拿大西安大略大学(University of Western Ontario)和三所拉美大学的商学院也获得了招聘人士的好评。这三所拉美大学分别是：墨西哥的IPADE和Tecnologico de Monterrey以及哥斯达黎加的INCAE。
由于国际性商学院的评分方法做了修改，因此无法对各年的排名榜进行精确比较。不过今年排名前五的学校仍大体是去年的那些。
但ESADE今年却把IMD从第一的宝座上挤了下去，后者此前曾连续两年排名第一。大多数招聘人士都将ESADE的国际性文化视为其最大的资产。该校只有约三分之一的学生是西班牙人，其余学生来自约30个国家。
招聘人士对该校毕业生的团队精神也给予很高平价。旅游公司TUI Espana的人力资源开发经理阿瑞斯(Beatriz Olvera Arias)说，ESADE的毕业生“有着成为团队优秀一员的正确态度，他们注意倾听别人的意见，注意采纳别人的想法，并能帮助团队内的其他人共同进步。ESADE的毕业生更愿意与他人合作而不是与之竞争，即使这些人是他的市场竞争对手。”
排名第二的IMD是世界最有特色的商学院之一，其MBA培训项目是专为有经验的经理人量身打制的，为的是将他们送上高级领导岗位。对于那些不要求MBA毕业生按部就班从低层职务做起的企业，IMD的毕业生尤其有价值。
生物科技公司Serono International的市场开发经理劳伦斯?甘提(Lawrence Ganti)说：“我们要求招来的人能迅速熟悉工作并尽快派上用场。IMD的MBA毕业生入学前都有管理经验，这意味着我们不用手把手地教新来的人如何投身商界。”
Ronald Alsop
