P&Q’s Must Reads: Stanford On Top For Fourth Consecutive Time In Businessweek’s MBA Ranking

Hello everyone –- Welcome back to Poets&Quants’ Must Reads, a quick, digestible recap of the top business school news, sponsored by CentreCourt, P&Q’s virtual admission events.

I’m your host, Kristy Bleizeffer, and I’ll be highlighting the most important P&Q stories you might have missed. So, let’s get to it.

No. 1: Stanford On Top For Fourth Consecutive Time In Businessweek’s MBA Ranking

Bloomberg Businessweek last week published its 2022 ranking of full-time MBA programs with Stanford Graduate School of Business on top for the fourth consecutive time. Despite that familiar outcome, this controversial list has no shortage of surprises and shocks.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, ranked a lowly ninth last year, improved but only managed to place seventh in this ranking. UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business slipped out of the Top Ten. U.S. Georgia Tech cracked the Top 20 at #18, from a rank of 29th last year. You can see the full list in our rankings tab, and then read this take from a Yale School of Management professor on why the ranking is still flawed.

No. 2: Kenan-Flagler Dean Calls It Quits

It was over a belated vacation last week that Doug Shackelford finally concluded that he wants his life back.

The dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina announced to faculty, staff and students on a Friday he would step down from the job he has held since 2014. The real shocker: His last day as dean would be just three days later on Monday.

In an email to the Kenan-Flagler community, he wrote: “I have run as hard as I could for as long as I could. I can’t continue at the pace this school deserves.” Read the full story now in our news tab.

It’s the latest is a slate of deans coming and going at leading business schools. We recently featured interviews with the new deans at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State and the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business. Meanwhile, Villanova School of Business announced that the first female dean in its history will step down at the end of this academic year.

No. 3: A Once High-Flying Wharton MBA Startup Is Grounded

Founded by a trio of Wharton MBA students in 2012, student loan company CommonBond is closing its doors. The startup was one of several student-founded fintech companies, including SoFi, Prodigy and Earnest, to disrupt the student loan market.

But CommonBond struggled through the pandemic and the administration’s decision to allow student lenders a reprieve on their loan payments. An attempt to pivot the company to solar financing four months ago wasn’t enough to sustain CommonBond.

No. 4: Our Weekly Round Up of News You Can Use

No matter where you are in your MBA journey, we bring several helpful stories for you this week.

First up: If you’re a current MBA student or hoping to be one in the near future,check out this story highlighting the 20 Biggest Regrets Of MBA Graduates. This spring, P&Q surveyed graduates from 75 top business schools to ask what they would have done differently. Their advice could help you avoid common MBA missteps. The story is up now on our homepage.

Next: For those looking for the right programs, we have the latest 2024 class profiles from a host of large programs this week, including Michigan Ross, Berkeley Haas, Northwestern Kellogg, Georgetown McDonough, and Harvard Business School. You can find these and other class profiles from the top b-schools in our admissions tab.

Finally: Don’t miss these MBA application tips from Fortuna Admissions, catered to either Engineers and Tech candidates or Finance candidates. The articles highlight the essentials on positioning your application to stand out in a sea of excellence. Find more tips in our admissions tab.

And, that’s it for this week’s Must Reads recap.

I also want to alert all the school seekers out there to CentreCourt’s upcoming MBA Festival events. Our next series, The MBA & Your Career, is happening October 4-5, and you can register for free on our events tab.

For those interested in online MBAs, our next backstage event is November 15-16. Register now for free.

Again, I’m Kristy Bleizeffer, and you can join me next week, right here, for a recap of what’s important in the world of business education. Thanks for listening and, as always, stay informed!