Review : Pagalguy Rankings

Recently, Being an alumni of a reputed B-School in India, I received a mail from the PR cell of my college saying :

"Dear All,

I want each and every student/alumni of [name of my B-School] to participate in this ranking process by Pagalguy. I believe every B-School student is aware what these Pagalguy rankings mean to the reputation of his/her college. So without further emphasizing the importance of these rankings I urge you to participate in this process by visiting the following link:

http://rankings.pagalguy.com/

The reputation and popularity of our institute is in the hands of every individual who's associated with our institute and not the job of just a handful of people. I believe the lackluster participation in this survey would not be repeated this year.

Thanking you for your support.

Student PR Cell"

Considering I am one of the loyal student of my school and want it to achieve as much fame as possible, I visited the website and did fill in the survey. The first stage is a 2-step procedure:

1. Some 100 B-Schools are mentioned out of which I am supposed to strike out 15 schools which should NOT be included in the rankings.
   
2. I was suppose to order some 5-6 criterion which I think are important when one selects a B-School.
   

First, how are there 100 schools selected? As per the administrator – the schools were selected depending on its brand value all over India. I am assuming they would have definitely a done survey beforehand to know what is the brand value of the various schools.

Anyways, when I started selecting those 15 schools, I realized a pattern – I tried to select the first 15 schools. And not select them randomly. And its only after I have selected the first 15 ones that I was supposed to review- then I added or removed a few of them. So I suppose the first 15 of them, unless they are exceptionally well, are really at a disadvantageous position.

Secondly, Is this survey not a measure of how many people vote against a B School than for a B School. Even when elections happen, people tend to vote for a person. If he is voting against a person, it's not because the voted person is better but that he does not want the other to win. To what extent is this logic right in saying, it's the right B School. It's just about sending mails like one sent by my PR cell and seeing – how many of us can access the net and vote! The more the student base the more higher the rank will be of my B School.

The other thing to notice is – The top league IIM's and all can be assured of their place as no student from any other school will vote against them. But again within the IIM's there will be definitely a competition of which IIM is better. So the only way IIM K (say) can get ahead of IIM I (say) if students of IIM K vote against IIM-I. Now this will mean some 200 points will be earned by 'K' and not by 'I', which gives it a better position than 'I'. But 'I' can be assured that it will remain in top B Schools because there are people outside IIM's that will definitely not vote it out.

Similarly when I was voting, then I was making sure that I vote against B-Schools which were closer to my rank last year. But again, if all B Schools start doing this then it will come out to who has maximum number of student base to vote against the other..

I am not sure thus to what extent is this ranking correct and honest and correct indication of the B Schools!