Graduate Business Schools Top 50
We shall indicate some publications that rank MBA programs.

U.S. NEWS &WORLD REPORT gives an annual ranking of the top 50 MBA programs in the United States. USN has been ranking graduate programs and undergraduate colleges and universities since 1987. Their rankings are the gold standard.

BUSINESS WEEK gives a biannual ranking of the top 30 MBA programs in the United States. Business Week indicates HOW THEY CAME UP WITH THE RANKING. The BW Ranking is probably second to the USN Ranking.

ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT, a unit of The Economist., puts out a ranking of the top 100 MBA programs (they make no geographic restriction). This ranking implies a ranking of their top 46 MBA programs in the United States. This website gives a lot of useful information about each of their ranked programs.

FINANCIAL TIMES puts out a ranking of the top 100 MBA programs (they make no geographic restriction). This ranking implies a ranking of their top 57 MBA programs in the United States.

Forbes (September 3, 2007) gives a ranking of their Top 50 U.S. Business Schools. This ranking does not appear to be on the internet. Forbes' ranking is based on the return on investment of these programs. This ranking provides some interesting data.

WALL STREET JOURNAL gives a ranking of their top 19 national MBA programs (e.g. Dartmouth ranked 1 and Stanford ranked 19), gives a ranking of the top 51 regional MBA programs (e.g Brigham Young ranked 1, University of Texas ranked 19, and University of Connecticut ranked 51), and gives a ranking of 25 international MBA programs (including nine USA MBA programs. Perhaps the new WSJ management will lead to a better ranking or perhaps not. Because there was not just one ranking, we made no use of this ranking.



For each column but the first, the top twenty schools of business in that column are in turquois. As one can see, the USN and BW agree on the top twenty albeit not their order; these two rankings even agree on the top twenty-one schools of business.

The business schools in the Financial Times top fifty seven but not in the USN top fifty are: U South Carolina (25.5), U Arizona (27), Thunderbird (32), William & Mary (41), George Washington (also at 41), Tulane (46.5), Temple (54), U Pittsburgh (56), and Case Western Reserve (57).

The business schools in the Forbes top fifty but not in the USN top fifty are: U Tennessee (24), Wake Forest (31), Rollins (37), U Arizona (43), Tulane (44), U Missiouri (46), William & Mary (49), and SUNY Buffalo (50).

The business schools in the Economist Intelligence Unit top forty-six but not in the USN top fifty are: Brandais (30), U South Carolina (32), U Pittsburgh (35), Wake Forest (39), Temple (43), Case Western Reserve (44), William & Mary (45), Thunderbird (46).


MBA Rankings by US News

In its April 7-14, 2008 issue, U.S. News and World Report (USN) selected and ranked their chosen top fifty of the 425 master's programs in business accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. No ranking was given or implied for the business schools not within the USN Top Fifty.

This section contains some of the raw data used by U. S. News and World Report to calculate their April 2008 ranking of MBA programs. This USN Ranking is based on a weighted average of eight measures of quality: PEER SCORE (counts 25%), which is based on the score assigned by business school deans and directors, RECRUITER ASSESSMENT SCORE (counts 15%), AVERAGE GMAT SCORE (counts 16.25%), AVERAGE UNDERGRADUATE GPA (counts 7.50%), PROPORTION OF APPLICANTS ACCEPTED (counts 1.25%), AVERAGE STARTING SALARY AND BONUS (counts 14%), EMPLOYMENT RATE AT GRADUATION (counts 7%), and EMPLOYMENT RATE THREE MONTHS LATER (counts 14%).

COLOR CODING FOR "USN RANK" AND "USN SCORE"
Business schools in the same contiguous color group are not expected to move out of this color group within the next year or two although they may move within their color group; for example, over the next couple of years, we can have some confidence that the USN ranking of UC Berkeley, Dartmouth, and Columbia will continue to be 7, 8, or 9 in some order.



MBA Rankings: 2000-2008
All data is from the relevant issues of U.S. News & World Report.

The RANK AVERAGE (last column) is calculated for MBA programs that have ranked in the top fifty in at least seven of the nine U.S. News' rankings from April 2000 to April 2008. The rank average is just the average of the seven to nine rankings given.

THE TOP THREE MBA PROGRAMS from 2002 to the present have been, in some order, Harvard, Stanford, and U Pennsylvania. This is indicated by the pale blue color-coding.

THE TOP FOUR THROUGH NINE MBA PROGRAMS from 2004 to the present have been, in some order, MIT, Northwestern, U Chicago, UC Berkeley, Dartmouth, and Columbia.

THE TOP TEN THROUGH SEVENTEEN MBA PROGRAMS from 2004 to the present, have been, in some order, New York University, UCLA, U Michigan, Yale, Duke, Virginia, Cornell, and Carnegie Mellon. This is indicated by the light green color-coding,

NO ROOM IN THE TOP SEVENTEEN. The top seventeen MBA programs have not changed since 2004.

ALMOST NO ROOM AT THE TOP. Since 2001 only 54 MBA programs have been in the top fifty; this is somewhat amazing considering that in April 2001, because of ties, 53 MBA programs were listed in the top fifty.

Thanks for the excellent presentation of the rankings. I anticipate that Stanford will be the sole number one business school in five to ten years. There is so much positive momentum for Stanford and its Silicon Valley alumni base that I think it will soon fully eclipse Harvard. Nice to see that the links above go to the in-depth profiles that have been written. Very informative all around.

Definitely thanks. Ken, I'm thrilled about this site.