I don't know much about the program, but Vanderbilt is a great school. I imagine that it perennially falls in the top 20 in undergrad rankings. I expect that the B-school falls at about the same spot, maybe a little lower. PhD program ranking can diverge from the MBA ranking, but not too much. You can google "finance phd rankings" and find some papers trying to rank programs using various stats, but the most common signals of quality are citations per faculty member and citations per graduate.
But I am not sure these rankings are critical. I imagine that there are fewer finance PhDs graduating each year than MBAs from any given MBA program, so you'll be in elite company as long as you're in the top 50 listed in any of the papers you find. As far as Vandy, I went to the web site and didn't see some of the info you should ask for:
- placement of recent graduates
- attrition rate
- faculty/student interaction and research
The first is the real indicator of quality. Don't be disappointed if placement isn't at top 10 MBA program. Those are usually dominated by a few programs (Harvard, Chicago, Wharton, MIT, NYU -- an the entering students there are pretty unbelievable, often already having PhDs in tangent fields). Placements at top 25-35 are considered solid. Industry is typically considered a lower placement than most academic jobs because most business schools pay well on a 9 month salary and after tenure give you a great safety net. A program that has all academic placements at big state universities and above would serve you well (although if you'd prefer industry, the faculty may push you towards academia -- most consider it a more challenging position -- although my experience is pretty limited).
I think the testmagic forums may be a good resource for you, also.
