Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania shared top honors in the 2024 U.S. News rankings of the best full-time MBA programs in the United States.
Last year's top ranking, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, tied for third place on the latest list. MIT Sloan School of Management ranked fifth.
But while Stanford University has risen five spots from last year's sixth place to first place, its East Coast rival Harvard Business School continues to struggle, dropping further from fifth place to sixth. What about the other schools that have popped in and out of the top 10? Columbia University, Duke Fuqua University, and Michigan Ross University have all fallen to a tie for 12th place, making them unlikely to re-enter the rankings in future issues, but are still in a position where they could rejoin.
Rankings have changed due to new index evaluating post-MBA salary by occupation
U.S. News acknowledged that some of the ranking changes were due to a change in how it evaluates graduate salaries by occupation: “Schools may have improved or fallen slightly in this ranking, depending on how well their graduates' salaries compare to those of graduates from other schools, especially when occupation is taken into account.”
The change to a more US-centric ranking was praised by some deans. “The change in U.S. News' methodology to place less emphasis on starting salary upon graduation is a positive step,” said Anne Harrison, dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. The school rose four places to tie for seventh place with Yale School of Management and NYU Stern. Haas ranked fifth on the new criteria, but its average salary and bonus, at $188,343, was the lowest of the top 10 MBA programs.
But the deans make a compelling point about the new metric: “At the end of the day, business school graduates go on to jobs in a variety of industries, which naturally means a range of salary levels. This is no different at Haas, where graduates prioritize the areas where they can learn the most and have the greatest impact, whether that's consulting, product management, fintech or starting a new company. We applaud U.S. News for considering the reality of the wealth of opportunities for business school graduates and making an apples-to-apples comparison across all of the schools they survey,” Harrison added.
Vanderbilt's MBA program sees biggest improvement among top 25 schools
Among the top 25 MBA programs, Vanderbilt University's MBA saw the biggest increase, climbing seven places to 20th. Three schools rose four places. In addition to Haas, University of Virginia Darden moved up from 14 to 10th and University of Texas McCombs moved up from 20 to 16th.
Two of the top 25 MBA schools dropped four spots: Dartmouth Tuck dropped from sixth to 10th last year, and Michigan Ross dropped from eighth to 12th.
These year-over-year changes are nothing compared to the roller coaster of big ups and downs: The University of Pittsburgh's full-time MBA program jumped 39 spots to rank 47th this year, up from 86th last year; American University's Kogod School of Business jumped 37 spots to 85th, a significant jump from 122nd in 2023; and Lehigh University's MBA jumped 32 spots to rank 66th, up from 98th.
27 of the top 100 companies saw double-digit changes in ranking from last year
Meanwhile, Brandeis University's MBA program dropped out of the top 100, dropping 27 places to 107th. Boise State University also dropped out of the top 100, dropping 21 places to tie with Brandeis at 107th. The University of Denver and Stevens Institute of Technology both dropped 19 places to 87th and 72nd, respectively.
Of course, such large changes over a 12-month period do little to impact U.S. News' credibility, since the quality of these programs has remained relatively stable. In fact, 27 of the top 100 ranked MBA programs saw double-digit changes from last year.
While it may be puzzling to many that Harvard Business School has dropped to sixth place behind MIT Sloan, its graduates are actually seeing their average starting salaries and bonuses fall by nearly $5,000, while Booth and Kellogg schools are seeing average increases of $10,000.
Harvard MBAs are paid less than their peers
The average salary and signing bonus for Harvard MBA graduates last year was just under $200,000, at $193,201 (see table below). Six of the top 10 schools had average salaries over $200,000, including leader Stanford at $209,680. Harvard also lagged in employment rates, with just 84.2% of its graduates employed three months after graduation, well below the 95.6% rate at the head of the top 10, the University of Virginia Darden School.
Of the top 10 schools, Stanford University also had the lowest acceptance rate for applicants, with 8.4% of applicants accepted, followed by Harvard Business School (13.2%) and MIT Sloan (17.8%). Dartmouth and Tuck College had the highest acceptance rate of any school in the top 10, with 40.1% of applicants accepted, up from 33.4% the previous year.
The highest median GMAT scores among the most recent MBA entrants were at Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, Harvard and University of California, Berkeley, all at 740. The lowest was at the University of Virginia Darden School, at 710. Stanford and Harvard also had the highest undergraduate GPAs among the most recent MBA classes, at 3.8. Dartmouth & Tuck had the lowest GPA among the top 10, at 3.5.
Top 10 MBA Programs in U.S. News 2024 Rankings
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))> Rankings & Schools Salaries & Bonuses Employment Rate* Admission Rate Median GMAT Median GPA 1. Stanford $209,680 82.8% 8.4% 740 3.8 1. Pennsylvania (Wharton) $201,296 94.2% 24.8% 740 3.7 3. Chicago (Booth) $204,197 95.0% 32.6% 730 3.6 3. Northwestern (Kellogg) $199,888 94.8% 33.3% 740 3.7 5. MIT (Sloan) $196,246 90.8% 17.7% 730 3.7 6. Harvard $193,201 84.2% 13.2% 740 3.8 7. NYU (Stern) $201,727 94.0% 31.4% 730 3.6 7. UC Berkeley (Haas) $188,343 90.8% 23.0% 740 3.7 7. Yale $192,356 90.8% 32.9% 720 3.7 10. Dartmouth (Tuck) $202,171 94.6% 40.1% 730 3.5 10. Virginia (Darden) $201,691 95.6% 39.4% 710 3.6 *Employment rate three months after graduation is an average of the past two years and has changed from previous one-year surveys to a new methodology.
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