<p>I see other problems with this list. I'll focus on law schools because I'm more familiar with them. The top 14 law schools are pretty much set in stone. They are considered national law schools.Below that, the rankings drop off. The usual advice is that if you don't get into one of the top 14, you should go to the strongest law school in your region. Therefore, I would want to see your analysis looking only at the top 14 law schools. That # may be arbitrary, but it's this group of 14 that everyone applying to LS focuses upon.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is #15 this year. I believe it is the first year it has been. In past years, UCLA or UTexas have been #15. So, if you include Vanderbilt and NOT UCLA and UTexas, I think your results become distorted because at the time students elected to apply to and enroll in Vanderbilt, it's probable that it was not rated #15. It was NOT #15 when current 1Ls elected to matriculate there. </p>
<p>I don't know if it would cause any great shift, but it seems pretty silly to me to include Vanderbilt because it is ranked number 15 NOW, but not include UT or UCLA which were ranked 15 when students made the decision to matriculate.</p>
<p>Again, for LSs it's 14 that's the magic number because all of the top 14 have been in the top 14 since USNews started ranking and all of them have been in the top 10 at least once--no other law schools have. </p>
<p>I suspect --but don't know--that the same flaw may exist in your other rankings, i.e. some of those near the bottom of the 15 schools used to rank may not have been in the top 15 when students currently attending them applied and matriculated.</p>
<p>Do you really think people are so mindlessly following the USNWR rankings that they are willing to apply to Vanderbilt in a year when it's ranked #15, but not in a year when it's ranked #17?</p>
<p>No, I don't, if that wasn't clear. I am saying that the cut off is the top 14 law schools. Once you get below that, to include Vanderbilt but not USC or Texas is silly--IN PART because EVEN IF you choose by strict US News rankings, which is what the OP did, Vanderbilt was NOT ranked #15 when its current students enrolled there.</p>
<p>The exercise is pointless and your approach is inherently flawed in that it does not take into account the key variable which is the percentage / number of sudents at a given school who actually apply to these specific types of post graduate programs. MIT and CalTech students for example historically go in different directions. Chicago students too to a certain extent. That's not to say that the relatively few students from MIT CalTech et al who do elect to apply dont do very well. For somewhat related reasons, I question including MBA programs in this analysis, since some schools like MIT have strong undergraduate business programs whereas others like Harvard and Northwestern have none. I am guessing but I have to believe that the Harvard and Northwestern Kellog MBA programs have a relatively large number of applicants and acceptances to their MBA programs from their undergrad programs, whereas MIT students interested in business may get what they need with an undergraduate business degree. This isnt an issue with law and medicine</p>
<p>Course 10 at MIT (I think that's the major for management), along with the kellogg certificates offered at NU, is gonna be the next hot target among recruiters- mark the words. I really think MIT has a chance to surpass Wharton as the top undergrad b-school within the next 20 years, not in sheer numbers, but more in percentages.</p>
<p>AdmissConsulting: At the risk of further hijacking this thread, I dont disagree about MIT. And, I am a big fan of Northwestern. However, as of last Fall at least it appeared to me that Northwestern was a long way from commtting to full blown undergraduate business program. If I am remembering correctly, the kellogg certificates that you mention only require about four classes and last Fall there were only approx 50 McCormick (Engineering) and Weinberg (A&S) students enrolled. One or more new certificate programs, with differing emphasis, were being added for 08-09 Someone who would know told me that the certificates were, in part, an attempt by the existing undergrad programs to leverage off the relatively higher ranking of the MBA program and I didnt get the sense that Kellogg was planning to go to a full undergraduate business program anytime soon. But things are continually changing.</p>
<p>While both Kellogg certificates consist of only 4 courses, the materials are actually more advanced and intense than what you'd encounter in typical "full blown" undergrad business programs. Your first course "financial economics" is exactly the same acclerated finance course offered to MBA students: Turbo</a> Finance, Finance Department. The other 3 courses are also MBA-courses (materials are the same though you sit only with undergrad peers; the MBA students are in different session).</p>
<p>Also, the pre-reqs consist of seven (financial economics) or eight (managerial analytics) courses that are not easy: Kellogg</a> School Certificate Program for Undergraduates - Kellogg School of Management - Northwestern University
Note that "microeconomics" isn't the intro one. It's the intermediate one mainly for economics majors. As far as I know, no other undergrad business program require 3 semsters of calculus and 1 semester of linear algebra (this Kellogg cert even recommends the honors sequence of them). I do not know any requires econometrics either. The pre-reqs themselves are way more advanced than what are required for just about any undergrad business program.</p>
<p>It appears AdmissConsulting's prediction is on the mark:
[quote]
While the Financial Economics Certificate completed its inaugural year in June 2008, the program administrators already have information about the 10 graduating seniors’ full-time jobs and rising seniors’ summer internships. The majority of seniors who graduated in June accepted full-time jobs from the companies where they completed their summer internships. The majority of these students — now Northwestern alumni — are working in various areas of investment banking and in consulting. One student is in medical school.</p>
<p>The rising seniors obtained summer internships at top companies in various industries, including investment banking, management consulting, actuarial consulting, stock analysis, hedge funds, fixed income sales and trading, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, securities, private banking, and healthcare investment banking.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Those career fields mentioned in the last sentence are generally available only to top candidates.</p>