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US News & World Report #33 for 2023-2024

Within Cox, we really have been trying hard over the past 6 years to move the lever on these metrics even when we have many considerable constraints. When they start ranking our Online MBA, we should do well there too.

SMU Biz Prof wrote:Within Cox, we really have been trying hard over the past 6 years to move the lever on these metrics even when we have many considerable constraints. When they start ranking our Online MBA, we should do well there too.

Can you share some insights on what these constraints are?

AfricanMustang wrote:

SMU Biz Prof wrote:Within Cox, we really have been trying hard over the past 6 years to move the lever on these metrics even when we have many considerable constraints. When they start ranking our Online MBA, we should do well there too.

Can you share some insights on what these constraints are?

well first its cost - when you are competing against UT and they are half our cost - to compete we need vast scholarship dollars. We are behind by 30 million in that area and desperately need attention from leadership on that one item. I'd add we have less PHD teaching (and research) than some other programs so that is something else we are working on - but it has become prohibitively expensive to attract top tenure track talent.

Countering those - Dallas nd NYC are soaking up a ton of our students and they are doing VERY well. We are one of the top 3-4 national schools that are recruited by Morgan Stanley and Goldman now - which is now pretty much just us and UT in Texas. Also Dallas is becoming a financial center eclipsed by only NYC now - with 4500 Goldman jobs on the way.

Alts is cranking out very bright students. Real estate and accounting also at the top of their game.

We need an angel investor to crank up the scholarship dollars to jump up another 7-8 spots.

I had understood USNews also changed the weighting of the criteria with more emphasis on employment stats vs stats of incoming students. That’s not a bad thing since the most important part is to help get good jobs. SMU still needs to increase its GMAT and gpa scores. I’m shocked at seeing UtD higher but I believe their even smaller class size allows them to give scholarships to students. I can’t believe SMu doesn’t hold a much higher prestige and relationships in the DFW and Texas than UTD. I’ve never met anyone from UTD in my life. I was shocked to see TCU as the biggest mover. They also have a smaller class and probably took advantage of the new criteria a bit.

This was intentional - lowered the Full Time MBA class size to about 60 students (used to be over 100). Also increased the international % to close to 30% to bring in the higher GMAT scores from Asian markets. Cox went test optional and started to waive the GMAT test for US students who would be low performers on GMAT. US News only requires that 50% of the class has a test score now to participate in their ranking- which means, factoring in the international students who pretty much all take the GMAT, the test score could be waived for a majority of the US students.

Seems like a pretty good strategy to the play the rankings game.

Wouldn’t the international students placement also count in the rankings? They typically score well and get great grades but have tougher job prospects due to sponsorship requirements.

tristatecoog wrote:Wouldn’t the international students placement also count in the rankings? They typically score well and get great grades but have tougher job prospects due to sponsorship requirements.

Correct. But what is being measured in this ranking is the smaller % of international students graduating in 2022. The larger % of internationals that just came in will not be factored in until they graduate in the 2025 ranking. So - this strategy works well for today's ranking - but could end up hurting a couple of years down the road.