Targeting The Top B Schools

Rankings of business schools have long generated controversy, but rarely like the new one from a couple of economics professors, Joel Waldfogel at Yale University and Joseph Tracy at Columbia University. The duo ranks schools by the value they add to students' earning power.

Trouble is, the profs' own schools appear well back in the pack: Columbia ranks 23rd and Yale 63rd, dead last. By their reckoning, Oklahoma State University (No.8) or the University of New Mexico (No.9) add far more value to students than either Columbia or Yale. BUSINESS WEEK places Columbia ninth and Yale in its runners-up category (finishing between 20 and 40); Oklahoma State and New Mexico aren't among the magazine's top 40 schools.