October is conference season with many of the major industry associations such as the Conference of Supply Chain Management Professionals and APICS holding their annual meetings. And so it seems like a good time of year to think about career development. In the traditional sense, career development for many involves going back to school. The number of schools offering quality graduate programs in supply chain management has exploded over the last ten years. Which schools, however, have the top programs in supply chain management? A forced ranking of education programs should never be the ultimate guide to picking the right school for you, but there are a couple of surveys that can provide you with a starting point. The granddaddy of school rankings - U.S. News & World Report -- has issued a list of the best business schools in the specialty of supply chain/logistics with the top three being Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, and Arizona State University. (The full ranking of schools is available for $14.95 on the magazine's Web site.) Similarly Stephen M. Rutner of Georgia Southern University and Stanley E. Fawcett of Brigham Young University released a "State of Supply Chain Education" report last year, which appeared in the September 2005 issue of Supply Chain Management Review. This survey also provided a ranking of supply chain education programs with Penn State, University of Tennessee, and Michigan State earning the top spots ( see chart - Ranking of Education Programs). Rutner and Fawcett based their rankings on a survey sent to more than 1,000 logistics and supply chain professionals and 175 college and university educators. The report compares the rankings given by academics versus industry practitioners as well as providing an overall combined ranking.  The U.S. News and World Report survey on the other hand calculated rankings based on a weighted average of quality indicators. These indicators included a peer assessment score based on a survey of business school deans and directors as well as a recruiter assessment score based on a survey of corporate recruiters. Other indicators included the average starting salary and bonus for 2005 graduates, employment rate for 2005 graduates, mean GMAT score, mean undergraduate GPA, and acceptance rate. In spite of the methodology differences, there is a significant overlap with 15 schools appearing on both lists (out of the 20 schools appearing on Rutner and Fawcett's overall list and the 23 on U.S. News & World Report's list). The school's overall prestige seems to carry more weight in the U.S. News & World Report's ranking, however. The consumer magazine's list includes such Ivy League schools as University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and Dartmouth College and academic powerhouses like University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University, and Duke University. These institutions do not appear on Rutner and Fawcett's rankings. | 
