The B-school rankings game

The time of the year when the flowers blossom, birds chirp, the time when spring is in the air, has finally come. Incidentally, it is the same time when the bitching about B-school rankings start. The same time when B-schoolers get into the 'My daddy strongest of all' mode.

So many magazines come out with all sorts of ratings leaving everyone perplexed. Aspiring students are left clueless. B-schoolers are in no better position. One magazine says their institute is number 4, and an other equally 'reputed' magazine says their B-school is number 12. Thank God there is no negative ranking! Last year, just the day before my interview, ET rated IIM-I number 5 after IIMs ABCL. An other magazine rated IIM-I 21 the year before. If only B-schools could vault their positions so easily in a year's time! That piece of information only fortified my belief that rankings are as worthy as a piece of crumpled paper in the room corner trashbin.

I was motivated to write about this because I was demotivated by a ranking that came out now. BusinessWorld magazine rated IIM Indore number 28. You heard it right. Twenty eight. As in thirty minus two. Needless to say, all those corner institutes to which you didn't even bother applying are rated in the top-10 list. I was literally thrown out of my chair this time. IIMs LIK didn't find their way into the top-10 list, let alone top-5. All these changes, according to the magazine, have happened in a year. Thank God I didn't follow these ratings then.

Our media committee says that we usually participate only in the BT and ET surveys, and that we didn't even participate in this particular BusinessWorld survey. I'm not trying to defend my institute, but I'm really as cluelessand as helpless as the rest. If there is such a lot of subjectivity in the rating, why at all rate institutes? Do we have anything close to rankings in Engineering colleges? Aren't students and employers inching everytime to Engineering colleges without this information? Isn't 'IIT' a tag to reckon with?

Now, coming to the core issue, what are these ratings all about? and what is the real rating among B-schools in India? Trust me, this is one of the toughest questions to handle. I've never studied in any other B-school other than IIM-I. Is it fair even to try to rate other B-schools? I guess no. I'm enjoying my stay here. I'm really studying a lot. I'm not even sleeping. It's been total fun. But, so does every other B-schooler - or so they claim. Where do we stand in comparison? Only God - and, mind you, NO ONE ELSE - knows.

In all, my take for aspiring students would be: speak to people to whom you are close with. Don't go by magazine ratings. I won't be surprised if IIMA is rated 5 sometime now! Leave the rankings game to magazine wallas and B-schoolers. This bitching is something that's never gonna end.

Addendum: Rumour had it that IIM-I is rated 28, but it was infact IMS Indore that is rated 28. There is no rating mentioned for IIMs LIK coz these instis didn't participate.