The virtual rankings

Most B-schools have excellent Marketing programs, and since I aspire to major in that domain, I am quite impressed by those who maintain excellent websites. Maybe I am a sucker for good website design, but it certainly makes a lasting impression.

When I first started this search, the one website which impressed me most was of Stanford GSB. Show me one other site where the Admissions folks dole out such awesome information regarding what to write in essays, when best to apply, how to write effective recommendation letters. Its undoubtedly the finest piece of html code in the b-school virtual space. Very subtle, useful and classy!

I think after Harvard introduced its latest website, it too is one of the best links out there. Especially their current students link is really impressive. Wharton's on the other hand is a dud! I think the only valueable information I liked (not the usual marketing mantras) is their general MBA Decision page - when you should do it, from where you should do it etc. Pretty neat. In fact, even Kellogg and Johnson have excellent websites. Naturally I know a bit about these since I am applying here - and not that the decision was taken because of their website skills, but they do have nice features compared to some other schools.

I think by far the not-so-neat links were of MIT Sloan and Haas. Both these seriously seriously need to be reworked!!! ISB is a bare-minimum site frankly, and can definitely do with cool features.

But if any top B-school websites need a complete rehash, it has to be the great IIM-B and other IIM websites!!! Sorry, but I dont think I have seen a more pathetic website than that of IIM-B. They have also introduced a 1-year program, and for almost 2 months did not even have any information about it online. http://www.iimb.ernet.in/iimb/

And while I was thinking about this, Businessweek came out with its own ranking of websites. Check this out!!! :) These rankings are pretty close to my observations! Here is the slideshow -
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/09/0911_admissions/index.htm


- MBAlmighty