It’s a big day for releasing rankings, as the Economist Intelligence Unit has also come out with its annual ranking of MBA programs this morning. The ranking methodology for this list considers four factors – new career opportunities, personal development/educational experience, increase in salary and networking potential – as evaluated based on data from the schools and surveys from students and recent alumni. Readers can visit the EIU site for a great interactive MBA ranking chart to see how the schools stack up in a number of different criteria, and the overall top 20 is just below:
1. IESE, University of Navarra
2. Dartmouth / Tuck
3. Stanford GSB
4. Chicago GSB
5. IMD
6. Northwestern / Kellogg
7. Harvard Business School
8. NYU / Stern
9. Michigan / Ross
10. Berkeley / Haas
11. Cambridge / Judge
12. Columbia Business School
13. UVA / Darden
14. Henley Management College
15. UCLA / Anderson
16. Instituto de Empresa
17. UPenn / Wharton
18. MIT / Sloan
19. Cranfield School of Management
20. London Business School
Though U.S. schools still dominate the list due to their sizeable endowments (which translate into more opportunities for students) and expansive networks, Barcelona-based IESE tops the ranking for the second consecutive year. The Economist rankings have historically shaken up the generally held notions about how schools stack up (evidenced by Stern’s #8 status as compared to Wharton’s finish at #17), highlighting the importance of careful research and consideration of what one is looking for from an MBA program.
