I'm not sure it's really the number that matters - each network has a distinct focus - some non top-10 or top-5 schools (Carnegie Mellon for example) may have less highly-ranked MBA program/network but have a really strong engineering/undergraduate network. For an MBA who has an engineering background or is pursuing engineering management, getting an MBA at that sort of program may make a lot of sense. I think the real key here is that blindly following rankings makes little sense and that picking a program that's really right for you is what does make sense.
zecho|13 years ago