GWU B-School Rank Remains Stable Despite Email

According to its "Hatchet" newspaper, business school leadership sent an email to all seniors to foster participation in Business Week's student survey. Problem was, it also reminded them that their responses played a key role in the school's rank and, consequently, the value of their degree. The email seemed to get more students to respond with some 44 percent completing it, compared to a 28 percent national average. Although Business Week editors threatened to remove GWU completely from the rankings, they ended up in anyway, moving up a modest two places to #51.

I wrote about a similar type of rankings manipulation at the University of Washington which held a "Business School Rankings Awareness Week" to help increase participation in the Business Week survey. For its efforts, the Washington school dropped from #25 to #33 this year.