Wharton MBA program falls 3 spots in rankings

Penn's own Wharton School fell to the No. 4 spot in the national rankings, down from the top spot it held last year. The University of Michigan's Ross School of Business topped the list, followed by the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and Dartmouth University's Tuck School of Business.

The Journal differs from other magazines in its method of ranking schools. Rather than looking at the overall quality of the school, "they are looking at the recruiter's perception," said Rosemaria Martinelli, director of MBA admissions and financial aid at Wharton.

According to Al Cotrone, director of the Office of Career Development and Academic Services at the Ross Business School, the overall process is like "a customer's perspective on a product."

At Wharton, recruiters "really liked what they saw from the students and liked slightly less what they saw from the career management office," Martinelli said.

Wharton officials said that their refusal to actively participate in the ranking process hurt them in the latest rankings.

"Last year, we made a decision with Harvard to withdraw from providing our students' information," Martinelli said. "We decided to [do this] for all rankings."

This decision could have made the rankings "a little more challenging" for Journal staff members.

The Ross Business School says it does not tailor its program to score high in the rankings. "We don't really try to do things. We are much more following our own strategies, and hope that the rankings following will be successful," Cotrone said.

Cotrone speculates that the "action-based learning" portion of the Ross curriculum helped with the rankings. It is a program in which Ross Business School requires students to work with companies.

"It's always nice when things go up rather than down. The rankings are always good for getting everyone talking about business schools," Cotrone said.

In terms of international business schools, the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, was at the top of the list, followed by the London Business School.

The magazine also divided its overall rankings into specific subcategories. In terms of average starting salary, Wharton students ranked fourth with $133,148, which includes both a signing and year-end bonus. Wharton students also have the highest average Graduate Management Admissions Test scores of students at all schools. Wharton ranks No. 4 in terms of female enrollment, and No. 2 in regard to minority enrollment.

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