The Biz of Coding

NYT snubs snobbish Top US B-Schools & Rankings

by Ujwal Tickoo on June 11th, 2009

In a revealing report “Five Ways to Fix America’s Schools” The New York times tells all the well known secret - about how US B-schools game the ranking system and make-believe applicants that they can get in — when in reality they cant because they arent wanted. NYT points out that top B-Schools just want a lot of applicants via their slick yet deceitful marketing statements to improve their “Selectivity Rankings” by dinging students that take the bait. (Anyone who has gone through the US B-School app grind knows this).

Here is the open secret revealed by Harold O. Levy of NYT

Unseal college accreditation reports so that the Department of Education can take over the business of ranking colleges and universities. Accreditation reports — rigorous evaluations, prepared by representatives of peer institutions — include everything students need to know when making decisions about schools, yet the specifics of most reports remain secret.

Instead, students and their parents rely on U.S. News & World Report rankings that are skewed by colleges, which contort their marketing efforts to maximize the number of applicants whom they already know they will never accept, just to improve their selectivity rankings. Meanwhile, private counselors charge thousands of dollars claiming to know the “secret” of admissions. Aspiring entrants submit far too many applications in the hope of beating the odds. Everyone loses. Opening the accreditation reports to the public would provide a better way.

The question is, “Is the Obama Administration Listening”? There is a bigger question. Even after these questions are raised in respected Media reports can’t folks still correlate the current economic crisis with the murky business ethics of MBAs trained by big-brand B-Schools who lend them the fake halos of authority, riches, and the amoral right to cheat? Who will force and twist the arm of B-Schools on the issue of ethics in recruitment practices that leads people - who know the game to become gameplayers themselves? As I write this post my stomach chruns with disgust.

POSTED IN: Uncategorized