美国最好的商学院：依旧是哈佛

    除了几个值得注意的特例，本已高企的新生本科阶段平均成绩依然相当稳定。在斯坦福大学，新生平均绩点从去年的3.69攀升至令人惊愕的3.73，为美国所有商学院的最高值。芝加哥大学布斯商学院的新生平均绩点从一年前的3.52微涨至3.57。隶属于达特茅斯学院(Dartmouth College)的塔克商学院(Tuck School of Business )报告称，新生平均绩点从3.49小幅上涨至3.50。但就总体而言，新生本科阶段的平均绩点与去年同期完全相同：哈佛大学、哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)、加州大学伯克利分校哈斯商学院和杜克大学(Duke University)福库商学院( Fuqua School)的平均绩点依次为3.67、3.50、3.61和3.40。

    大多数招生官员和院长表示，今年的申请者素质位居史上最佳之列。“申请者的整体素质变得更强了，”芝加哥布斯商学院全日制MBA院校副院长斯泰西•R•科莱说。“今年的GMAT成绩中位数为730分，处于第96个百分位数。现如今，GMAT成绩在680分以下的申请者已经变得极其罕见。我10年前来这里时，GMAT平均分为695分，而今年达到创纪录的723分。看上去我们的GMAT分数并不逊色于兄弟院校。”事实上，芝加哥大学布斯商学院今年的GMAT成绩中位数与哈佛商学院相等，是该校历史上的第一次。

    今年的美国最佳商学院排名中，前20名确实有所变化，但变化不大。加州大学伯克利分校哈斯商学院与杜克大学福库商学院今年交换了位次：福库位居第9名，哈斯下降至第10名。与此同时，密歇根大学(University of Michigan)罗斯商学院(Ross School)和弗吉尼亚大学(University of Virginia)达顿商学院( Darden School)也交换了名次。这所中西部名校上升到第12名，而达顿商学院则下滑至第13名。位于这些位置互换中间的，是依然稳居第11名的康奈尔大学(Cornell University)约翰逊管理研究生学院(Johnson Graduate School of Management)。

    虽然它的北加州表弟有所下降，但加州大学洛杉矶分校(UCLA)的位次已经从第17名升至第14名。它甚至把纽约大学(NYU)斯特恩商学院( Stern School )从第14名挤到了第15位。同时，耶鲁大学管理学院(Yale School of Management)从去年的第15名下降至第17名。实际上，在《美国新闻与世界报道》和《金融时报》(Financial Times)发布的美国商学院榜单上，耶鲁大学的排名高于加州大学洛杉矶分校，但其他排名，尤其是注重投资回报率的《福布斯》(Forbes)榜单，更青睐这家位于洛杉矶的商学院。

    与其他排名不同，Poets&Quants综合排名结合了世界上最有影响力的5份商学院榜单的最新成果，这些榜单的发布者分别是《彭博商业周刊》、《经济学人》(The Economist)、《金融时报》、《福布斯》和《美国新闻与世界报道》。Poets&Quants综合排名并不是仅仅计算这些榜单的平均值，而是依据每份榜单的权威性和信誉，对其分别加权——《彭博商业周刊》、福布斯》和《美国新闻与世界报道》的权重皆为25%，《金融时报》为15%，《经济学人》为10%。

    综合考虑这5份最有影响力的商学院榜单并不会完全消除每套排名体系的缺陷，但这样做确实可以显著弱化单个榜单的不足之处。任何一个榜单可能会因为错误的调查技术或带有偏见的排名方法而出现反常情况，而把所有数据放在一起则可以抑制这种现象。所以，这项综合排名有助于降低这些榜单的噪音，从而更加直接地向外界传递真实信号。

    译者：叶寒

    Undergraduate grade point averages -- already high -- remained pretty stable with some noteworthy exceptions. At Stanford, average GPA crept higher to an astounding 3.73, highest of any U.S. business school and up from 3.69 last year. At Chicago Booth, GPA eked up to 3.57 this year, from 3.52 a year earlier. Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business reported a tiny increase to 3.50 from 3.49. In general, though, undergraduate GPAs were exactly the same year-over-year: A 3.67 at Harvard, a 3.50 at Columbia, a 3.61 at UC-Berkeley Haas, and a 3.40 at Duke University's Fuqua School.

    Most admissions officials and deans say the applicant pool is among the best they have ever seen. "The quality of the pool is just stronger," says Stacey R. Kole, deputy dean of the full-time MBA program at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. "We hit a 730 median GMAT this year, the 96th percentile. There are very few people under 680 these days. When I got here 10 years ago, the average GMAT was 695. It's a record this year at 723. And it's not like we just shimmied under the bar on GMAT." Indeed, Chicago Booth's 730 median is now equal to Harvard Business School for the first time in the school's history.

    When it comes to this year's ranking of the best, the top 20 did change -- but not much. UC-Berkeley's Haas School of Business and Duke University's Fuqua School switched places this year: Fuqua took the ninth spot, and Haas landed in tenth place. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan's Ross School and the University of Virginia's Darden School also pulled a switch. The Midwestern titan rose to No. 12, while Darden slipped to No. 13. In the middle of all the swapping, Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management remained stable at No. 11.

    Though its Northern Californian cousin slipped a little, UCLA climbed from No. 17 to No. 14. It even bumped NYU's Stern School out of the No. 14 spot, sending it down to No. 15. Meanwhile, Yale School of Management finished at No. 17, down from 15 last year. U.S. News and the Financial Times actually placed Yale above UCLA, but the other rankings -- in particular, the return-on-investment focused Forbes list -- favored the Los Angeles-based school.

    Unlike other rankings, the Poets&Quants composite list combines the latest results from the five most influential business school rankings in the world: Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Economist, The Financial Times, Forbes, and U.S. News & World Report. Instead of merely averaging the five, each ranking is separately weighted to account for their authority and credibility. (The BusinessWeek, Forbes, and U.S. News lists are given a weight of 25% each, while the FT is given a 15% weight, and The Economist is given a 10% weight).

    Combining the five most influential rankings doesn't eliminate the flaws in each system, but it does significantly diminish them. When an anomaly pops up on one list due to either faulty survey technique or biased methodology, bringing all the data together tends to suppress it. So the composite index tones down the noise in each of these five surveys to get more directly at the real signal that is being sent.