Do people really use MBA rankings to choose which program to do? For most people, those ranking tables probably matter less than some other factors. Here is a more realistic way to define what the best MBA program is for a prospective student.

Accounting for MBA price and convenience

Price and convenience are two major enrolment considerations that the rankings don't seem capture at all.

For MBA programs, the dollar price you pay is the tuition fee for 1.5 to 2 years worth of full-time study. Generally, price in inversely related to how high up the rankings lists an MBA program may sit. In other words, the best programs may actually be unaffordable for many students.

Convenience is another factor that really is part of the price equation as well. Moving to another city or state to do your MBA studies is expensive. An ever bigger cost is taking time off work to study, which an be avoided by doing a flexible online MBA.

Is MBA degree prestige all that important?

Most, if not all, well-known lists of the best MBA programs put prestige to the forefront. The top programs are expensive and tend to be provided by famous business schools.

While some rankings attempt to capture variables such graduate satisfaction, the leading adjudicators of what "is best" unfortunately resort to using surveys of academics. They essentially ask researchers to appraise other research institutions. Academics are not well-positioned to rate other colleges and universities from a student's point of view.

The universities and colleges that lead the rankings strongly tend to be those with the biggest research budgets. A couple of examples are Stanford and Wharton.

While prestige certainly adds to the value of an MBA qualification, it is not everything. Once you get away from the top echelon of business schools, most MBAs probably rate about the same in people's minds.

So, the vast majority of students get little advantage from choosing an MBA higher up the rankings when considering the group of programs they can afford and are able gain entry to. The typical employer who wants to employ a graduate as some form of business manager won't know that their qualification was ranked above or below the qualifications of most other applicants.

The best MBA programs are affordable and probably online

If we are talking about the majority of students who won't be attending a famous business school, affordable MBA programs that are delivered online will probably rate best. The trick is to find programs like this that achieve good learning and skill development outcomes.

"The biggest postgraduate schools in Australia are based in Sydney and Melbourne. The majority of Australian MBA students now choose to study online, a phenomenon that predates the COVID pandemic." Good Universities

Innovations in online learning and allowing business schools to deliver online MBA programs that work well for students. Increasingly, the online learning experience is designed to be compatible with full-time work.

The typical pattern of study has a student completing a unit from start to finish within a 6-8 week teaching period. Units are completed sequentially throughout the year. Students benefits from interactions with classmates online and accessible support services.

While online programs are popular and generally receive good feedback from students, you won't find them in the top MBA rankings. This just goes to show that what defines "best" is really in the eye of the beholder.

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