Business Schools: Who’s on First? What’s on Second?

The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive ranking of America's top National business schools seesawed again this year. The ranking just isn't what you'd normally expect it to be. At the top of the recruiters' lists: The University of Michgan. #2: Dartmouth (Tuck). #3: Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business (as in Dave Tepper at Appaloosa). #4: Columbia. #5: University of California, Berkeley. Conspicuously absent from the top 10: Harvard (#14), Stanford (#18), Wharton (#7) and University of Chicago (#11).

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.)

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. Next they'll want the blood of your first born.

http://online.wsj.com/public/page/2_1245.html