It’s interesting to observe how sections of the latest ranking results resemble those in the PaGaLGuY Rankings of 2008. The economic recession came and went, and in many ways the last year’s (2010) PaGaLGuY Rankings reflected the challenges b-schools faced in placing their batches during hard times.

With MBA recruitments back on an upswing, the PaGaLGuY Rankings reflect trends similar to those held before the economic crisis. Some of the clear highlights of the rankings are,

• At rank 1, IIM Ahmedabad remains the topmost preferred b-school.
• IIM Calcutta trumps IIM Bangalore to reach the second position. WIMEI (well-known institute of management in east India) has lately been having boasting of placements that rival and in many ways, surpass those of IIM Ahmedabad and that seems to have helped boost its perception.
• ISB Hyderabad is back to 4th position. The b-school had taken a hit in the 2010 rankings, after facing rough weather finding jobs for its 400+ strong batch during the economic crisis. But with recruitment in corporate India back to a surge, the school has reinstated its image and is back to number 4, just after the top three IIMs.
• SP Jain, Mumbai breaks into the top 10 to number 8. With admission processes of institutes in its range under fire from the applicant community, SP Jain appears to have gained due to its image as a school with a sound profile-based selection process.
• IIM Indore, which has traditionally been ahead of IIM Kozhikode in our previous rankings seems to have taken a hit this year due to public knowledge about the difficulty it has faced in placing an increased batch size. Yet it remains in our top 10, one rank behind IIM Kozhikode.
• VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur and IMI Delhi are back in the rankings after facing disqualification last year. VGSoM has been ranked at 25 (3 ranks better than its rank in 2009) while IMI Delhi stands at 32, just one rank lower than its rank in 2009. It’s interesting to see that the rankings of schools in the 15-30 range have not really been affected by the introduction of four new IIMs in the last one year.
• Respondents have ranked three new IIMs at Ranchi, Raipur and Rohtak at 33, 36 and 37 respectively. Trichy was not included in the survey as it hadn’t been formally announced when our survey was launched. Back in 2008 when we published rankings for the first time, IIM Shillong had debuted at 27. Four years later, it remains at 25, showing that despite the IIM brand name, it is going to be very tough for the new breed of IIMs to dislodge some of the older and established b-schools.

Women’s rankings

Comparing the women’s rankings to the overall rankings, we find that women have tended to vote up b-schools that are either located in metros, or ones with affordable fees compared to other schools in their cluster. Apart from voting up b-schools such as MICA Ahmedabad (Overall 22, Women 20) and TISS Mumbai (Overall 19, Women 17) as they always have in PaGaLGuY Rankings, women have also shown a clear preference for schools with lower fees such as FMS Delhi (Overall 7, Women 6) or the IIT b-schools.

Only in very rare cases does a Delhi or Mumbai-based b-school rank lower in the women’s rankings compared to the overall rankings, indicating a preference for well-established cities which are well-connected to their hometowns.

IIM Kozhikode, which admitted 30% women last year is one rank higher up in women’s rankings ( compared to its overall ranking (9).

(Thanks to Neha Chavan for helping us figure out some of the trends in the women’s rankings)