The Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs of 2011

by John A. Byrne

The 2011 Poets&Quants Ranking of the Best MBA Programs in the U.S.

2011 P&Q Rank & School Index 2010 Rank BW Forbes U.S. News FT Econ
1. Harvard Business School Boston, MA 100.0 1 2 1 2 2 4
2. Stanford GSB Stanford, CA 98.8 2 5 2 1 3 7
3. Chicago (Booth) Chicago, IL 98.5 3 1 3 5 6 2
4. UPenn (Wharton) Philadelphia, PA 98.0 4 3 4 4 1 10
5. Columbia New York, NY 95.0 5 9 5 9 4 6
5. MIT (Sloan) Cambridge, MA 95.0 8 10 10 3 5 8
7. Northwestern (Kellogg) Evanston, IL 94.9 7 4 7 5 11 12
8. Dartmouth (Tuck) Hanover, NH 93.6 6 14 6 7 9 1
9. Berkeley (Haas) Berkeley, CA 92.3 9 8 13 7 13 5
10. Duke (Fuqua) Durham, NC 91.6 10 6 12 12 10 13
11. Virginia (Darden) Charlottesville, VA 90.3 11 11 9 13 20 3
12. Michigan (Ross) Ann Arbor, MI 89.2 13 7 14 14 12 19
13. Cornell (Johnson) Ithaca, NY 89.0 15 13 8 16 14 15
14. Yale School of Mgt. New Haven, CT 88.4 14 21 11 10 8 16
15. New York (Stern) New York, NY 88.3 12 18 18 10 7 9
16. UCLA (Anderson) Los Angeles, CA 85.0 17 17 20 14 15 17
17. Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) Pittsburgh, PA 83.8 16 15 23 18 19 11
18. UNC (Kenan-Flagler) Chapel Hill, NC 81.7 18 16 16 19 30 28
19. Texas-Austin (McCombs) Austin, TX 81.3 19 25 17 17 24 20
20. Emory (Goizueta) Atlanta, GA 80.1 20 22 22 23 16 18
21. Indiana (Kelley) Bloomington, IN 76.2 21 19 27 23 38 23
22. USC (Marshall) Los Angeles, CA 73.6 22 26 39 21 34 14
23. Georgetown (McDonough) Washington, DC 73.2 23 33 35 25 17 26
24. Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 71.5 30 34 29 28 31 27
25. Vanderbilt (Owen) Nashville, TN 71.1 28 37 33 28 25 21

Notes: The rankings for The Financial Times and The Economist are for U.S. ratings, not those publications’ global or North American regional rankings.

(See next page for schools ranked 26 through 50)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

The Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs of 2011

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  1. Mario said: On February 3, 2012

    @Gosh

    loving prestige will be deceased once you get older and more involved in real world..it is just a factor for the youngsters whom still have no responsibilities..with time you will forget all that..the earlier you realize this the better your performance in this tough life.. ;)

  2. Gosh said: On February 3, 2012

    @Mario

    Well actually it is the opposite! It is because I’m not that young anymore that I care so much about the prestige because my opportunity cost is quite high. I want my MBA to open some specific doors, not simply enter finance or change industry. so I need a good key :-)

  3. D said: On February 3, 2012

    My intent is not to convince you, but caution you. I’m not affiliated with either school, but as an independent observer I can see the recent differences in quality of their grads.

    To your point about some students in China not knowing about Booth, that might very well say more about them than the school. Those that are not well connected or successful in business might only know those schools with strong undergraduate brand names. I can honestly say that 3/4 of my friends have probably never heard of Booth…but I will also not likely cross paths with those friends during the course of my professional career. So, should I really consider their advice when choosing a school? Should I consider the advice of my high school math teacher as well? (A little overboard, I know, but I wanted to drive home the point.)

    So who’s opinion does matter? The prospective employer’s. If your target employer has never heard of Booth, then they probably don’t hire many (if any) MBAs, and chances are you would be overpaying for an MBA no matter where you went. However, among those employers that actively recruit MBAs, I think you’ll find that Booth is not only known, but among their most highly targeted schools.

    Bottom line, prestige matters for the un-informed, while the informed pay closer attention to a school’s recent ability to produce capable and well balanced graduates that are highly valued in industry.

  4. Mario said: On February 3, 2012

    @Gosh

    at INSEAD_and based on ex_ you will have a keys not a key… ;)

  5. Avatar Image
    Charles said: On February 16, 2012

    I’m currently debating between duke and Virginia. I’m coming out of the military trying to switch careers into banking. Anyone have any insight?

  6. Mario said: On February 16, 2012

    @Charles

    go for Duke..this school is gaining momentum..and military friendly.. However, if you are a case method fan..Darden is good..

  7. James Earl Jones said: On February 16, 2012

    @Charles,

    If you have the time, visit both and find which fits best. While similar on paper, I visited both and found that there was a big difference in the overall student bodies (Darden has about 100 less per class), and the Veteran’s club at Darden is much more engaged than at Duke. My 2 cents.

  8. Pbateman said: On February 17, 2012

    What are people’s thoughts on university of Washington? Seems to always be in the 30-35 range, but also seems ideal for the pacific northwest where I would try and target job wise.

  9. Cobra Kai said: On February 18, 2012

    @Pbateman

    If you have the stats and work experience to get into a top school, you should do so unless you have other personal reasons for wanting to be Seattle.

    Since the PNW is devoid of a top 15-20 school, those companies realize they have to recruit out of their region (i.e. Amazon recruits from top schools coast-to-coast).

    http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/careers/employment-statistics/top-hiring-companies/

    http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/Career-Management/WHO-RECRUITS-HERE.aspx

    http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x37212.xml

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