How U.S. News Ranks The Top U.S. B-Schools By MBA Specialization

It’s a big popularity contest, to be sure. But the 13 MBA specialization rankings released April 9 by U.S. News & World Report in conjunction with the magazine’s annual ranking of U.S. business schools are more than that, too: a reflection of the resilience, year to year, of a school’s reputation in various disciplines. A gauge of how B-schools are seen by their peers.

And in that respect, the lack of turnover in this year’s rankings of schools in six “Quant” disciplines and seven “Poets” is telling.

Once again in 2024, there was remarkably little turnover at the top of each ranking. Only two specializations had new No. 1 schools: Information Systems, in which MIT Sloan School of Management swapped places with Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business, a do-si-do that the schools have performed each of the last three years; and Project Management, where CMU Tepper climbed into a tie with MIT Sloan after placing third last year.

NO B-SCHOOL RANKED IN EVERY SPECIALIZATION THIS YEAR

U.S. News’ specialization rankings are based wholly on the results of a survey of deans and program directors. They are divided between the “Poet” disciplines of Entrepreneurship, International Business, Management, Marketing, Nonprofit, Project Management, and Real Estate; and the “Quants” of Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Production & Operations, Supply Chain/Logistics, and Business Analytics. The smallest two rankings are Project Management, with nine schools ranked this year (same as last year), and Nonprofit, also with nine (also the same); the largest are Accounting, with 43 schools (down from 47), and Business Analytics, with 38 (down from 45).

MIT Sloan was the big winner in MBA specializations this year, with four No. 1 rankings in Information Systems, Project Management, Business Analytics, and Production & Operations; last year the Sloan School was tops with three No. 1’s. MIT also place second in Supply Chain and third in Entrepreneurship. The only other school with multiple No. 1 placements was the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which was first in both Finance and Real Estate (in addition to second in Marketing and Accounting, and third in International Business and Business Analytics.

MIT Sloan and UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business were the only two B-schools to rank in every Quant specialization; no school ranked in every Poet, and therefore no school ranked in all 13. Berkeley Haas came closest, ranking in all but Project Management; Sloan ranked in all but Marketing and Nonprofit.

Last year only one school ranked in every category: Michigan Ross School of Business. It was the third straight year Michigan Ross was the only MBA program to score a ranking in all 13 specializations — a streak broken this year, as Ross failed to rank in Information Systems, where it was 13th last year and 14th in 2022; in Nonprofit, where it was 5th the previous two years; and in Real Estate, where it was 18th and 12th, respectively.

TOP 10 U.S. NEWS B-SCHOOLS: HOW THEY RANK IN THE ‘POETS’

Source: U.S. News & World Report

STRONG SHOWING FROM UNRANKED PURDUE DANIELS

The stability at the top of U.S. News‘ 13 specialization rankings extended past the top spots:

• In Finance, the top six schools had remained unchanged for years, led by Wharton and followed by Chicago Booth, NYU Stern, Columbia, MIT, and Stanford; however, this year Stanford swapped places with Sloan, with the GSB moving to No. 6 from No. 5. Meanwhile, Harvard has placed No. 7 and Berkeley Haas has placed No. 8 in Finance for three straight years now.
• In Information Systems, MIT Sloan and CMU Tepper have swapped places at Nos. 1 and 2 for four straight years; Arizona Eller School of Management has been No. 3 the last two.
• In Supply Chain, the top three ranks have been the same for years: MSU Broad College of Business at No. 1, followed by MIT Sloan and Arizona State Carey School of Business. Notably, unranked Arkansas-Fayetteville Walton College of Business —  which shares a hometown with Walmart — tied with Wharton at 14th.
• In Entrepreneurship, Babson College’s Olin School of Business was No. 1 for the 31st straight year (see page 2 for more), and Nos. 2 through 4 were unchanged from last year. Stanford, however, moved up to No. 5 from No. 6 and MIT slipped to No. 6 from No. 5.
• In Management, Harvard stayed on top but Stanford dropped from No. 2 to No. 3, while Michigan Ross moved up to No. 2 from No. 3; Northwestern Kellogg dropped to No. 5 from No. 4, and Virginia Darden moved up to No. 4 from No. 6.

Many small schools that usually get little attention in MBA rankings get a chance to shine in U.S. News‘ specialization lists. This year, those included Florida International, ranked 110 overall, which ranked No. 7 in International Business; unranked Illinois Gies College of Business, which was No. 3 in Accounting for the second straight year; and George Washington School of Business, ranked 62nd overall but tied for No. 9 in International Business. Another unranked school, the Daniels School of Business at Purdue University, had a banner day, tying for No. 3 in Production/Operations, tying for No. 4 in Project Management, tying for No. 7 in Supply Chain/Logistics, tying for No. 14 in Information Systems, and ranking No. 13 in Business Analytics.

TOP 10 U.S. NEWS B-SCHOOLS: HOW THEY RANK IN THE ‘QUANTS’

Source: U.S. News & World Report

ADDITIONS & SUBTRACTIONS

Several specialization rankings this year included schools that had not been ranked in them for at least three years:

• In Supply Chain, three schools ranked tied for No. 21 after three years of being unranked in the category: Columbia Business School, Washington Foster, and Florida Warrington;
• In Production/Operations, the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina tied for 22nd;
• In Business Analytics, Florida Warrington tied for No. 30, and Yale School of Management tied for No. 36;
• In Entrepreneurship, Florida Warrington tied for No. 26;
• In Management, Ohio State Fisher College of Business tied for No. 31;
• In Project Management, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business ranked No. 8;
• In Real Estate, Arizona State Carey ranked No. 16;
• In Marketing, Texas A&M Mays Business School tied for No. 29;
• In Management, Ohio State Fisher tied for No. 31.

Additionally, many schools that had been ranked in some specializations failed to make the cut this year. They are:

• Information Systems: Wharton (tied for No. 9 each of the previous two years); Michigan Ross (ranked Nos. 13 and 14 in 2023 and 2022, respectively), Indiana Kelley School of Business (ranked No. 8 last year and tied for No. 9 in 2022); and Texas-Dallas Jindal School of Management (tied for No. 14 last year, No. 12 in 2022);
• Accounting: Indiana Kelley (29T in 2023, 26T in 2022) and CMU Tepper (44T, 37T);
• Finance: Indiana Kelley (21T, 27T) and Florida Warrington (29T, 27T);
• Supply Chain: Cornell Johnson (16, 17T) and Indiana Kelley (17T, 20T);
• Business Analytics: Emory Goizueta (38T, 31T), Notre Dame Mendoza (28T, 31T), Minnesota Carlson (38T, 39T);
• Entrepreneurship: Arizona Eller (17T, 23T);
• International Business: Texas-Austin McCombs (16T, 23T), UCLA Anderson (23T, 17T);
• Project Management: Georgetown McDonough (8T, 9T);
• Real Estate: Michigan Ross (18, 12T);
• Nonprofit: Michigan Ross (5, 5T);
• Marketing: USC Marshall (29T, 26T), Washington Foster (23T, 22T), Florida Warrington (20T, 15T), and Wisconsin School of Business (20T, 22T);
• Management: USC Marshall (27T, 22T) and Washington Foster NR (27T, 26T).

Indiana Kelley and Michigan Ross share the same distinction of being dropped from the most lists: three apiece. Washington Foster was dropped from two. Their fate in the specializations did not necessarily correspond to their overall ranking: While Ross dropped four spots to rank 12th and Foster dropped seven to rank 27th, Kelley actually moved up two spots to a three-way tie for 20th.

See the next page for a report on the schools with long streaks at the top of U.S. News‘ specialization rankings; and pages 4 & 5 for complete tables of rankings for the top 63 schools in the U.S. News MBA ranking for 2022-2024.