Top MBA

What is the top MBA?

There are many MBA ranking lists, and so it's not actually possible to list the top MBAs. However, in general there are three business schools which tend to come out on top or thereabouts in just about every global ranking there is. They are Harvard Business School , Wharton and Kellogg and all three are in the USA . The top schools in Europe are London Business School , INSEAD and IMD.

Harvard Business School possesses the most recognizable name brand. It doesn't matter where you are around the world, the term "Harvard MBA" does seem to be inextricably linked with quality. The school is located in Cambridge , Massachusetts , on the east coast of the USA . It is related to the world famous Harvard University . Harvard Business School is particularly famous for its "case" method of teaching, whereby students are taught by being put in the positions of major business decision makers in case studies of business problems for which they need to suggest a solution. This adds a practical edge to Harvard's teaching, and sometimes the school manages to bring in the actual protagonists in the case study to discuss how they felt at the time. Harvard's faculty also produce many case studies which are used on MBA courses around the world.

Wharton Business School is in Pennsylvania . It is just as well known in business circles as Harvard Business School is but does not have as good overall recognition. Wharton boasts a strong core course but sees as its speciality the broad range of elective courses that you can take. This enables you to be flexible about the subjects that you are covering and either build up a speciality or cover a range of courses for general management purposes. Wharton also says that the professors do not have their teaching style dictated to them, so can choose to teach in the style that they feel is best for students. This again is an advantage.

Kellogg Business School is in Chicago and is part of the prestigious Northwesters University . Kellogg sprang to prominence recently as Andrew Fastow, the Financial Director of Enron, who came up with those schemes for off-balance sheet debt hiding, went there. That shouldn't put you off though. Fastow was a brilliant man, he just used his brilliance illegally. Kellogg is particularly notable for the range of majors that you can take as an MBA student, and also for the fact that they offer both a two-year MBA course AND a one-year MBA course. These are both for full-time students. The one-year course is really for people who have been working less than 5 years who want to get an MBA but don't want to take too much time off for studying.