JOHNSON SCHOOL STAYS AT #8
Clayton Kunz '02
Issue date: 10/5/00 Section: Johnson News
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The Johnson School’s performance in the rankings “is quite an accomplishment,” said Dean Robert Swieringa. He noted that it is rare for schools that jumped significantly in prior Business Week rankings not to slip in subsequent ones. The magazine had ranked the Johnson School 18th in its 1996 survey. Dean Swieringa also noted that seven of the top ten schools changed rankings from 1998 to 2000, with two—Stanford and Dartmouth—falling out of the top 10 altogether.
Students greeted the news enthusiastically. “I think it’s fantastic,” said first-year Bill Preston. “It’s a reaffirmation of the things I’ve felt have been going really well this year.” Others emphasized the quality of the Johnson School over the rankings themselves. First-year Karen Lim said, “It’s a positive thing, but rankings didn’t factor into my decision about which school to go to. I was more interested in what Cornell had to offer than its ranking.”
However, it’s clear the news did not go unobserved among the current crop of prospective MBAs. Inquiries originating from the Johnson School website on Friday, September 22 were up 40% from the prior Friday, said Natalie Grinblatt, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid. According to Grinblatt, polls of admitted Johnson students show that the Business Week rankings and associated information “are the most important and most utilized tool in helping an individual to decide to which school to go,” above such factors as family, corporate contacts and mentors.
The new rankings also are not likely to go unnoticed among corporate recruiters. “From a recruiter’s standpoint, I think our holding at eight will certainly maintain enthusiasm for the school,” said John Nozell, director of the Johnson School’s Career Services Office. Regarding recruiters’ opinion of the rankings, “the main comment that we get, when we get it, is that top-ten is key.” He noted that banking and consulting are the two industries most interested in the ratings. Nozell expects the new rankings will help expand the list of companies coming to Ithaca. “To the extent that there are companies out there, in whatever industry they may be in, that are looking to expand their MBA presence, this should put us on their hit list,” he said. “It also gives us leverage to average our portfolio of recruiting companies upward that much more.”