How The M7’s Magnificence Was Tested In 2020

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

One fact of business school life can be counted on year to year: The M7 schools will be at or near the top in every ranking. But not in 2020.

In 2020, a year beset by coronavirus, one major publication to call a hiatus on its annual list and the M7 collectively agreed to boycott another. The Economist nonetheless went ahead and published its annual list, excluding the seven schools, much to joy of other schools and bewilderment of neutral onlookers.

At Poets&Quants, where we annually publish an aggregate ranking, the disruption of the pandemic and confusion among other ranking entities made our job more difficult — but we soldiered on. The P&Q list usually finds the M7 schools at Nos. 1 through 7 — and that happened once again in 2020, despite the circumstances. One change: Harvard, ranked third in 2019, and Wharton, ranked fourth, swapped places in the latest list, while Stanford remained the overall top school.

The M7 IN THE 2020 RANKINGS

ALL OF THE M7 SCHOOLS BOYCOTT THIS YEAR’S ECONOMIST RANKING

POETS&QUANTS: STANFORD AGAIN TOPS POETS&QUANTS’ 2020-2021 RANKING OF THE BEST MBAs
U.S. NEWS: HARVARD FALLS TO LOWEST RANK EVER IN U.S. NEWS RANKING
BUSINESSWEEK: BUSINESSWEEK AGREES TO SUSPEND ITS MBA RANKING THIS YEAR
ECONOMIST: WILD CHANGES IN THE ECONOMIST’S NEW MBA RANKING
FINANCIAL TIMES: HARVARD NUDGES ASIDE STANFORD FOR TOP HONORS IN FINANCIAL TIMES’ RANKING
FORBES: WHARTON TUMBLES IN FORBES’ 2019 MBA RANKING
2020 BUSINESS SCHOOL RANKINGS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION