When students
choose a business school, rankings aren't top priority
Regional and generational
preferences impact top selection criteria
By MARKETWIRE
April 7, 2015
RESTON, VA –
Conventional wisdom holds that students considering business school
give great weight, if not the greatest weight, to published school
rankings as a guide to their decision. The truth, however, is that
students place other factors above rankings in selecting a school
according to the Graduate Management Admission Council's 2015 mba.com
Prospective Students Survey Report released today.
The survey – of nearly
12,000 registrants to GMAC's mba.com website and conducted throughout
2014 – provides both schools and students with valuable insight into
the business school decision-making process for MBA and specialized
business master's degree candidates (such as a Master in Management,
Accounting or Finance). The survey uncovers that students from various
parts of the world display distinct differences in ascribing what
factors matter most to them and the order of importance in which they
consider those factors when making decisions about b-school.
When students listed their
top five consideration criteria for actually selecting a program and a
study destination, rankings didn't rank. The study destination
distinction is important as more than half of prospective students (52
percent) seek to study outside their country of citizenship, up from
40 percent in 2010 (and noticeable among Asia-Pacific and Middle
Eastern citizens). The top 10 preferred study destinations worldwide
are the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, France, India, Hong Kong,
Germany, Singapore, Netherlands, and Australia.
The survey does show that
published rankings have influence in candidates' school consideration
but places rankings overall as the third most consulted information
resource for prospective students, finishing behind school websites
and friends and family.
"Given the degree to which
school rankings dominate the discussion, it is interesting that as
their decision making progresses, students themselves say that
rankings fall in importance," said Gregg Schoenfeld, GMAC's director
of Management Education Research. "While the survey is geared toward
helping schools market to prospective students, applicants can use
report insights to inform and strengthen their selection process."
In addition to these
findings, the 2015 report also explores regional and generational
differences regarding prospective students' career goals, program
preferences, decision-making time lines, top study destinations, as
well as, education financing choices, motivations, online/offline
course delivery, the role of social media and preferences about
b-school culture. With analysis of survey responses available for
world regions and more than 30 specific countries, this is the largest
data resource of its kind available to the graduate management
education community.
An especially interesting
finding focuses on aspiring entrepreneurs, with 28 percent of survey
respondents indicating that they plan to start their own businesses
compared with 19 percent just five years ago. Respondents in Africa
(45 percent), Latin America (44 percent) and Central and South Asia
including India (43 percent) led this segment.
Highlights from the survey
findings include:
Even as business school
portfolios of master's programs continue to diversify, the MBA remains
the degree most often considered by prospective students. MBA programs
are exclusively considered by half (52 percent) of prospective
students, globally. Gauging the interest of prospective students
across more than 25 MBA and specialized business master's program
options, 26 percent of today's candidates are considering both degree
types.
Sixty-five percent of
prospective students pursue graduate management education to increase
the job opportunities that are available to them.
Segmenting prospective
students by career goals reveals three groups: career enhancers (34
percent of respondents), career switchers (38 percent), and aspiring
entrepreneurs (28 percent).
The Millennial generation
(those born from 1980 to 1998) dominates the distribution of today's
prospective business school students and represented 88 percent of all
survey respondents. Schools have three-months, on average, to engage
Millennials from when they take the GMAT exam and when they submit
their first application to business school.
Although the U.S. remains
the top preferred study destination for prospective students around
the world (66 percent of respondents), destinations such as Hong Kong
(up 2.4 percentage points since 2010), Canada and Germany (up one
percentage point each) have seen the greatest increase as preferred
study destinations in the past five years.
Financial issues remain the
most prominent reservation among all prospective students; 48 percent
of candidates say attending business school requires more money than
they have available and 44 percent are hesitant about taking on a
large financial debt. Both of these figures have declined, however,
since 2010.