How important are rankings of grad schools?

[MISin08]

I agree that you should go to the best school you can. I started a longer post while HawkGuy was being succinct

There's your feelings about it, what you want from the program academically, plus prestige and stuff. Then there's the utility of the degree, what recruiters and hiring managers will think of the 'brand' you've aligned yourself with. If you are going into a specific industry or have hopes of entering a specific company it could matter (here in Oregon, there's a rivalry between the two major state schools -- neither of which are ranked btw -- and I could see some employers favoring one or the other based on where they went, it's irrational, what can you do). Our local urban U ranks high among sustainability-focused MBA programs, which sets it apart, even though they were 'not considered for ranking' by BW. Jacksonville State in Alabama has a fine and very affordable AACSB distance MBA, and they aren't even listed on the 'distance' tab of the BW article at the link.

When it comes to name recognition in the US, I have read that for the most part there's the top tier -- 10, maybe 20 schools that are always ranked highly and will get people's attention. These schools are expensive, usually hard to get into, and none are distance programs. Then there's un-accredited and possibly nationally accredited (depends on who you ask, and I am not looking for flames here ) that may send up a red flag when HR checks you out. In the middle is most of the schools offering a MBA, where the choice of school is probably less about its ranking/image than about other factors -- location, internship opportunities, alumni network, how much face-to-face you want, specific electives, etc. A state university accredited by AACSB (as BSU is) is nothing to sneeze at, it just wont get the kind of attention or starting salary the big name schools do.

Phillip