Before US News, there was Business Week - now Bloomberg Business Week - and their rankings mattered. When I went to grad school in the mid 90s, IU’s B School was #7 for MBA.
This year - 31, down 9 from last year.
My alma mater fell from 32 to 39…it wasn’t long ago (a few years), we were making like UF undergrad and rising Harvard also took a fall out of the top 5 while UVA has moved up in big fashion. If you can open the article, you’ll see who fell off including I think it said Babson, U of SC, UCSD. Looks like Rice, SMU, CUNY Baruch and Wisconsin were big winners.
The link worked for me til it timed out. There’s some other surprises too. It’s a 4 page article - and go through all 4 to see the rankinags. I tried to post - in case this will work.
2023 Rank & School
Y-O-Y Change
2022 Rank
2021 Rank
2019 Rank
2018 Rank
1. Stanford Graduate School of Business
——–
1
1
1
1
2. Chicago (Booth)
——–
2
4
4
5
3. Dartmouth (Tuck)
+2
5
2
2
19
3. Virginia (Darden)
+6
9
9
5
9
5. Columbia Business School
+3
8
6
9
7
6. Harvard Business School
-4
2
3
3
3
7. Northwestern (Kellogg)
-3
4
5
10
8
8. Pennsylvania (Wharton)
-1
7
9
6
2
9. Michigan (Ross)
+6
15
13
17
18
10. MIT (Sloan)
-4
6
8
7
4
10. UC-Berkeley (Haas)
+4
14
7
8
6
12. New York (Stern)
-1
11
11
13
13
13. Cornell (Johnson)
-2
11
20
11
10
14. Duke (Fuqua)
-1
13
15
20
15
15. Yale SOM
-5
10
12
14
11
16. Emory (Goizueta)
+1
17
18
23
24
17. Southern California (Marshall)
-1
16
14
22
13
18. Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
+7
25
19
15
12
19. Rice (Jones)
+10
29
22
31
26
20. Georgia Tech (Scheller)
-2
18
29
24
27
21. Texas-Austin (McCombs)
-2
19
21
21
22
22. UCLA (Anderson)
-2
20
16
12
17
23. Washington (Foster)
+1
24
30
16
16
24. Georgetown (McDonough)
+2
26
17
18
20
25. Rochester (Simon)
+2
27
25
29
45
25. Vanderbilt (Owen)
+4
29
24
30
21
|27. Georgia (Terry)|+6|33|50|44|51|
|27. Southern Methodist (Cox)|+13|40|31|42|41|
|29. North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)|-7|22|33|18|23|
|30. Washington (Olin)|-9|21|NR|38|32|
|31. Indiana (Kelley)|-9|22|26|26|28|
|32. Minnesota (Carlson)|+2|34|42|35|29|
|33. Maryland (Smith)|+3|36|28|26|35|
|34. Notre Dame (Mendoza)|-3|31|34|28|31|
|35. Brigham Young (Marriott)|+2|37|39|27|25|
|36. William & Mary (Mason)|+5|41|58|34|30|
|37. Texas-Dallas (Jindal)|+4|41|32|35|37|
|38. Florida (Warrington)|——–|38|27|32|55|
|39. Arizona State (Carey)|-7|32|55|48|34|
|40. Howard University|-12|28|23|45|33|
|41. Wisconsin|+8|49|38|37|42|
|42. Texas Christian (Neeley)|+11|53|45|40|39|
|43. UC-Davis|+14|57|36|43|40|
|44. Rutgers Business School|+8|52|37|62|Row:18 Cell:6|
|45. Texas A&M (Mays)|——–|45|35|53|49|
|46. George Washington|+4|50|52|51|48|
|47. Boston College (Carroll)|+1|48|63|49|59|
|48. Baruch (Zicklin)|+16|64|81|71|83|
|49. Pittsburgh (Katz)|+5|54|41|54|68|
|50. Baylor (Hankamer)|+15|65|59|79|52|
Most interested in the reasons for the significant rises by Michigan-Ross (+6) and by Rice-Jones (+10). Not suggesting that the rise of either MBA program is unwarranted, just curious as to the reasons.
Yale’s drop (-5) seems about right.
Baruch’s move (+15) seems justified based on past internship & employment results as well as cost.
Thrilled to see Virginia-Darden (+6) receive positive recognition, but it is not in the same league as Northwestern & U Penn & Harvard.
Agreed. Another ranking that would benefit by tiering schools. M7, the top tier, is not going to change in the minds of many, regardless the ranking criteria.
Virginia-Darden is a great MBA program. Definitely a top 10 MBA program. But, as noted above by another, tough to break into M-7 territory.
When considering earning an MBA, the primary focus should be which program or programs will best help one achieve his or her career goals.
The M-7 MBA programs consistently enable their students to be placed nationally–as opposed to regional placement–at high salaries/compensation packages. If one’s goal is to switch industries, then any affordable M-7 program should be given serious consideration.
I recently looked at the website for Rice-Jones. My impression was that it was highly regional. Lots of students with oil industry employment backgrounds.
Another group of MBA programs that might attract some seeking international job placements: INSEAD, LBS (London Business School), U Toronto-Rotman, Said at U Oxford, Judge-U Cambridge, and IMD in Switzerland. INSEAD is very highly regarded.
In summary, the two most important considerations when selecting an MBA program: Will it get you where you want to go regarding your career and Affordability.
Most top 50 have the ability to place nationally.
Depends on what the student wants - I’m long ago but I chose #40 or 42 over #7 and 15 - back at that time - IU and UT. WHY ? Like today - money.
I wasn’t seeking Wall Street and consulting jobs were not an issue. Many went for consulting and I had a PWC consulting offer.
I can’t speak for today.
But many more go part time bcuz the salaries they earn and cost of programs sort of dictate that vs taking off like I did.
Some pretty huge names, led by Wharton and Sloan, are ranked well below their general reputation. And HBS at 6 is the lowest I’ve ever seen that prestigious school ranked.
And all across America, Fortune 500 CEO’s are yelling at their heads of talent “Cancel the trip to Cambridge that’s been on the calendar for 8 months. Delete the resume books. No way are we recruiting at these loser MBA programs”.
MBA students arent just pursuing an advanced degree but are at a point in their careers typically that they know what they want to do.
The Wharton/NYU finance person is unique to the marketing/brand manager at Kellogg Vs the Entrepreneur/tech Stanford candidate.
People are spending a lot of valuable time and tuition and they target these schools based on specialties and geographic opportunities. The sub categories and reputations are what drive decisions.
The rankings as they are being discussed are largely irrelevant.
FYI Harvard is and will likely remain for general management the most highly regarded no matter what a ranking service indicates.
The first sentence in your post is accurate only for a portion of all MBA applicants to elite programs; many just want a conduit to a new career. This is probably the main reason that so many apply to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, and other M-7 or Top 10 MBA programs which have different strengths. And this is why many apply with broad categories such as “consulting” or “finance” as their target career or industry.
Knowing that you don’t want to do something (conduit to a new career) is an element of knowing what you do want. The average MBA at elite schools is 28-29 years old.
My point and I stand by it is that the “typical” MBA candidate with 5+ years of work experience is far more nuanced in what they are looking for in terms of academic experience, specialization, reputation, geography and outcomes than most undergraduates who tend to lump top 20s together. Consequently a ranking that doesn’t break the differences down in the same discriminating way ad it’s target audience is largely worthless.
Lastly, please note that I specifically chose the word “typical” and deliberately avoided using the term “all” as you seem to imply.
We are not in disagreement–just refining responses.
The second paragraph of your post suggests that MBA applicants apply to certain schools for definite reasons related to specific academic strengths such as finance or marketing or tech entreprenuership. While not inaccurate by any means, many–maybe most–MBA applicants apply to a variety of M-7 and Top 10 MBA programs based on post-MBA career placement.
With respect to your position that ranking MBA programs without noting “differences” being “largely worthless”, I do not agree. For the most part, M-7 programs report great job placements at high salaries & compensation packages. Yes, elite MBA programs have certain areas of concentration that are stronger than others, but overall it is job placement & career opportunities that count most.
Of course, those aged 27 or 28 with 5 years of post-undergraduate full-time work experience have refined preferences; the issue that seems to be in discussion is as to how much those refined preferences dictate one’s targeted schools. It will vary by individual, but many just want to be in an M -7 or Top 10 MBA program for the career opportunities. (Venturing out into the Top 20 MBA programs may involve some additional considerations.)
Harvard also took a fall out of the top 5 while UVA has moved up in big fashion. If you can open the article, you’ll see who fell off including I think it said Babson, U of SC, UCSD. Looks like Rice, SMU, CUNY Baruch and Wisconsin were big winners.