RANKINGS. Plural.

Whether you are looking ahead to college or an MBA, you will probably, at some point, consult "the rankings."

The FT MBA Rankings are out. RANKINGS. PLURAL.

Whether you are looking ahead to college or an MBA, you will probably, at some point, consult "the rankings." On February 15, one of the most nuanced MBA rankings appeared; namely, the list compiled by the Financial Times of London.

How Not to Use the FT Rankings

The dream of "best in the world" fuels everything from Olympic figure skating to MBA and college rankings. In the Olympics, on one hand, there are announced criteria and a numbered scale that scores for each of those criteria.

In ranking schools, however, many factors come into play. But we can start by listing the schools FT designated as Tier I:

MIT: Sloan
INSEAD
University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
IESE Business School
London Business School
HEC Paris
ESADE Business School
CEIBS

They form a group, but ask yourself, "Do I want to be at MIT? Do I have reasons to develop a network of contacts through INSEAD in Singapore? Does my future lie in China with CEIBS?"

Your life and your goals matter much more than a few places on a numbered list.

How to Use the FT Rankings

The best thing about the FT rankings is that they are plural: RANKINGS. The data is published in a form that can be sorted to reorder the programs according to what is most important to a given user.

Give it a try. It's free at the Financial Times website.

We'll have more to say about college rankings as they appear.

Wishing the best for you, wherever you go,

Dr. Marlena Corcoran