[Program Fitting]BW ranking criteria

Just found this critical article on BW B-School Forum:
http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=17&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools&tid=73380

THIS IS TOOOO IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!

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Hi,
Louis Lavelle, the B-schools editor at BusinessWeek, asked me to post this message to you:
From Associate Editor Louis Lavelle, who overseas the b-school rankings at BusinessWeek:
Phear_me is under the impression that we used the difference between pre-mba salary and post-mba salary as part of our ranking methodology. We didn't. The data was presented in a table for information purposes only. The rankings themselves are based on only three measures--the student survey, an academic quality score (six equally-weighted measures: average GMAT score, average work experience, percentage of tenured faculty, average class size in core business classes, number of electives available to part-time mba students, and the program's completion rate) and a measure of post-MBA outcomes (% of students who say their program was "completely" responsible for them achieving their goals, whatever those goals may be).

Also, the argument that NYU should be ranked higher than it was because it gets students with high GMAT scores (which contribute only 5% of the final ranking) is ridiculous. You can always point to one thing about one school and say "see...that proves the rankings are ridiculous." But this isn't about one thing--it's about the whole Part-Time MBA experience--the quality of the students attending the program, the classroom experience, post-graduation outcomes...everything. And when it comes right down to it there were 24 other schools that did better than NYU using that yardstick. In fact, if I were constructing a ranking based on one metric, GMAT scores would NOT be it. They measure one thing and one thing only--how good students attending each program are at taking tests. If you want to know the true value of a program you don't look at the raw material going in, you look at the finished product going out.

Phear_me is entitled to his opinion, but if the conclusion that BW's rankings lack credibility is based on incorrect assumptions (the use of salaries in the methodology) and misguided analysis (high GMATs equals great school) he/she needs to rethink that conclusion.