To the Editor:

A YDN article (“Journal ranks SOM third-best in nation,” 9/6) quotes me commenting on the “bias” of the Wall Street Journal ranking methodology that gave Yale’s School of Management an “advantage.” I was dismayed to read how my perspective was portrayed in the article.

The quote seemed to imply I was impugning the credibility of the rankings and that the methodology was unduly advantageous towards SOM. This is simply not true.

Several business school rankings are published, each with varying weighting of criteria, emphases or biases of their own. In other rankings, there has been a pervasive disadvantage to SOM because it is a relatively young and small school compared to schools such as Harvard Business School, which is 93 years old.

Celebrating only its 25th anniversary this year, Yale has not had the extensive alumni base and years to build the reputation that unfairly influences the other rankings. My point was that since they are on the front line, recruiters know better than anyone which schools are producing the best graduates — and therefore the WSJ methodology is in fact superior to other rankings.

The recent WSJ ranking has leveled the playing field and finally given SOM the recognition it deserves. It was in this context I was referring to the “advantage” accorded SOM through the WSJ methodological “bias.”

Ingrid Dev

September 20, 2001

The writer is a senior marketing manager at Charles Schwab Inc.