Rankings

Why MBA Rankings Don’t Matter Except They Do

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MBA Ranking Comparisons

Top 25 MBA Ranking

Below is a list of the top 25 U.S. MBA programs based on 3 popular ranking sites: FinancialTimes, BusinessWeek, and MBA50.com. What we find here is that the classes listed are almost identical. The only difference between the lists is the rank order, and even then, the greatest difference between any two lists is ten position spots (Columbia University ranked 14 in BusinessWeek, and 4 in the FinancialTimes list.) FinancialTimes and BusinessWeek also have four and three schools respectively that show up on their top 25 list that are not included on the MBA50 list.

 

What this means to me, is that as long as you are accepted into one of the top 30 schools( in any of these lists), you are an elite MBA. The differences between these three lists are fairly arbitrary +/- 10 position points. If you are taking on a lot of debt to attend your MBA it is important that you are able to make it into one of these 25-30 schools. Otherwise, you should be sure to have a large portion of your MBA financed through other means (scholarships, employer-reimbursed, etc.) if you wish to ensure a positive ROI on your education.

 

Top 25 MBA Rankings

MBA50-Institution MBA50.com 2012 Rank BusinessWeek 2012 Rank FinancialTimes.com 2012 Rank
Harvard University 1 2 2
University of Chicago 2 1 6
Stanford University 3 4 1
University of Pennsylvania 4 3 3
MIT 5 9 5
Columbia University 6 14 4
Northwestern University 7 5 9
Dartmouth College 8 12 11
University of California, Berkeley 9 13 7
University of Virginia 10 10 17
Cornell University 11 7 13
Duke University 12 6 8
New York University 13 16 10
University of Michigan 14 8 14
Yale University 15 21 12
Carnegie Mellon University 16 11 16
University of California, Los Angeles 17 18 15
Emory University 18 22 18
University of Texas, Austin 19 19 25
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 20 17 26
Indiana University 21 15 21
Georgetown University 22 30 19
Vanderbilt University 23 25 31
Ohio State University 24 27 33
University of Southern California 25 28 32


FinancialTimes.com MBA Rankings 2012 & 2013

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International MBA Rankings

Do You Have an International MBA?

Below is the consolidated MBA rankings list as ranked by FinancialTimes.com. Unlike Business Week and Forbes, Financial Times offers MBA rankings for MBA programs across the globe. I always find this list extremely interesting, because I only have real insight into Domestic MBA’s programs and rankings. I would love to hear from someone that has experience at one of the non-US MBA programs on the list, and learn about your experience. Are MBA’s in other countries viewed in the same way as they are in the U.S.? Are they as valued? Less valued? Please leave your comments in the section below. If you are considering a non-U.S. MBA, what is the search process like?


Rank ’13 Rank ’12 School name Country
1 2 Harvard Business School US
2 1 Stanford Graduate School of Business US
3 3 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton US
4 4 London Business School UK
5 5 Columbia Business School US
6 6 Insead France / Singapore
7 9 Iese Business School Spain
8 10 Hong Kong UST Business School China
9 7 MIT: Sloan US
10 12 University of Chicago: Booth US
11 8 IE Business School Spain
12 14 University of California at Berkeley: Haas US
13 16 Northwestern University: Kellogg US
14 20 Yale School of Management US
15 24 Ceibs China
16 19 Dartmouth College: Tuck US
16 26 University of Cambridge UK
18 15 Duke University: Fuqua US
19 13 IMD Switzerland
19 17 New York University: Stern US
21 18 HEC Paris France
22 33 Esade Business School Spain
23 32 UCLA: Anderson US
24 20 University of Oxford: Saïd UK
24 24 Cornell University: Johnson US
26 11 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad India
27 28 CUHK Business School China
28 27 Warwick Business School UK
29 31 Manchester Business School UK
30 29 University of Michigan: Ross US
31 37 University of Hong Kong China
32 34 Nanyang Business School Singapore
33 30 Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Netherlands
34 20 Indian School of Business India
35 38 University of Virginia: Darden US
36 23 National University of Singapore Business School Singapore
37 45 Rice University: Jones US
38 36 Cranfield School of Management UK
39 42 SDA Bocconi Italy
40 38 City University: Cass UK
40 43 Georgetown University: McDonough US
42 46 Imperial College Business School UK
43 35 Carnegie Mellon: Tepper US
44 57 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign US
45 56 University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler US
46 44 University of Toronto: Rotman Canada
46 51 University of Texas at Austin: McCombs US
48 41 Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) Australia
49 40 Emory University: Goizueta US
50 58 University of Maryland: Smith US
51 66 Sungkyunkwan University SKK GSB South Korea
52 59 York University: Schulich Canada
53 61 Vanderbilt University: Owen US
54 61 Washington University: Olin US
54 46 Indiana University: Kelley US
54 81 University of California at Irvine: Merage US
57 65 Hult International Business School US / UK / UAE / China
57 82 University of British Columbia: Sauder Canada
59 49 University of Rochester: Simon US
59 74 Georgia Institute of Technology: Scheller US
61 – The Lisbon MBA Portugal
62 77 Michigan State University: Broad US
62 46 Melbourne Business School Australia
64 – Tilburg University, TiasNimbas Netherlands
64 86 University College Dublin: Smurfit Ireland
66 51 Coppead Brazil
66 54 Peking University: Guanghua China
68 59 Purdue University: Krannert US
69 – Mannheim Business School Germany
69 51 Texas A & M University: Mays US
71 71 Lancaster University Management School UK
72 – University of Bath School of Management UK
72 66 Ohio State University: Fisher US
74 54 University of Cape Town GSB South Africa
74 90 University of Iowa: Tippie US
76 61 McGill University: Desautels Canada
77 49 Pennsylvania State University: Smeal US
78 68 University of Western Ontario: Ivey Canada
78 73 University of Washington: Foster US
80 100 Babson College: Olin US
81 – Tulane University: Freeman US
82 93 University of St Gallen Switzerland
82 61 University of Southern California: Marshall US
84 79 George Washington University US
84 70 Vlerick Business School Belgium
86 – Korea University Business School South Korea
87 – Arizona State University: Carey US
87 – University of Strathclyde Business School UK
89 – Fudan University School of Management China
90 76 Incae Business School Costa Rica
91 74 Wisconsin School of Business US
92 – EMLyon Business School France
93 69 Boston College: Carroll US
94 – Case Western Reserve University: Weatherhead US
95 – University of California, San Diego: Rady US
95 77 Boston University School of Management US
97 – College of William and Mary: Mason US
98 98 SMU: Cox US
99 95 University of South Carolina: Moore US
100 – University of Alberta Canada

Sourced: FinancialTimes.com MBA Rankings