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&lt;p&gt;Most of you are responsible users of rankings, so the following maxim probably need not be uttered. The rankings are just a guide. Or repeated: The rankings are just a guide. In the case that you had a mental lapse, &lt;em&gt;Businessweek&lt;/em&gt; has provided prospective business school applicants with a guide on how to make the most of MBA rankings, which, you know, are just a guide. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;View the rankings as opinion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Admissions consultant Linda Abraham&amp;rsquo;s advice is to see the rankings for what they actually are: &quot;They are collections of data and surveys. They are opinions.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When to use rankings&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Business school rankings can be a good and free source of data and information. &amp;nbsp;&quot;Use rankings to figure out where to apply,&quot; says Sara Neher, an assistant dean UVA&#39;s Darden School of Business. &quot;Don&#39;t use them to decide where to go.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Think in terms of tiers, not individual ranks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The impression given by rankings is that the quality of a school is accurately expressed by the number sitting to the left of the school&amp;rsquo;s name, so the difference in quality between schools ranked 30&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; and 50&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; is more or less the same between schools ranked first and 20&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt;. In reality, among the top schools, the differences are often insignificant, says Douglas Bowman, a marketing professor at Goizueta.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Understand what each measurement means&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;How important is the metric that measures how often faculty publish in major academic journals? &amp;nbsp;According to Noonan, a professor at Goizueta, most students will say that it isn&amp;rsquo;t much of an influencing admissions factor. What they don&amp;rsquo;t realize is that published research is a proxy for how innovative and engaged a school&amp;rsquo;s faculty might be. Applicants should make sure they fully understand each rankings measurement before deciding which are of importance to them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Know where the data came from&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t just accept the data as it&amp;rsquo;s presented. That kind of behavior wouldn&amp;rsquo;t bode well for business school, anyways, no? Understanding data requires knowing the source of that data, says MIT Sloan&amp;rsquo;s associate admissions director Julie Strong. Ask: &quot;Did the school provide the information the publication uses to determine the rankings? If not, who did? How often are the rankings done? Is the information you&#39;re looking at two or three years old?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t forget the specialty rankings&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While the best-overall school rankings get all the attention, don&amp;rsquo;t overlook the specialty rankings. Admissions consultant Graham Richmond of Clear Admit, says to see which schools are good for finance, which for marketing, and see which school&amp;rsquo;s programs match their own career goals.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Create a personalized list&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Use the rankings data to create your own spreadsheet that incorporates the different parts of each rankings that are most important to you, says Richmond.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Remember what Einstein said&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[Businessweek]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Related:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FT&#39;s MBA Ranking &#39;Represents Everything Wrong with Business Education&#39;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wild Shifts in Best Business School Rankings Reveals Lack of Authority&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Best Value B-Schools: Graduate With Great Salary-to-Debt Ratio&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ten B-Schools People Go To If They Get In&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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