Business school branding

Turning down Yale SOM hasn't been an easy decision, I have taken a lot of heat from my friends and relatives back home who cannot get over the fact that I turned down Yale for the University of North Carolina.  Most people who are not familiar with MBA programs automatically assume that Yale SOM is a top ten program. It is not. U.S. News ranks Yale SOM at 15 and Kenan-Flagler at 21. Business Week, on the other hand, ranks Yale SOM at 22 and Kenan-Flagler at 16.

It's not unusual for business schools to different reputations from their parent universities. This is why many universities will have a separate name for their business schools, they want their business schools to be affiliated with the university, but at the same time, have a brand/identity/reputation that is separate. This works well for a school like the University of Virginia. In the mid '90s, Darden was top ten while the undergraduate program was in the high teens. But for a school like Yale University, it's probably best at this point to continue to have the Yale name prominently featured in the branding for its Yale SOM.

Another reason why schools will have a separate name for its MBA program is money. An alum recently donated $100 million to the University of Michigan and the school agreed to rename the Michigan Business School the Ross School of Business. One of my college professors, also a UVA grad, gave one million dollars in March to UVA but got nothing named after him. One of my lifelong goals is to make a major donation to the University but I will not do this unless they name either a building or the economics department after me. I think there is something very fulfilling about knowing that students will walk around grounds for years saying "meet me after class at (my last name)," "me and my roommate are living at (my last name) next year," or will graduate from the (First Middle Initial Last) Department of Economics.