Where does your business school rank?

Where do you go when you don’t know where to start?

What do you do when you’re not sure who to trust?

How can you make comparisons when they all say the same thing?

You start with rankings – flimsy, flawed, and flaky – flimflam disguised as flash, some say. Reformers argue rankings force schools to divert resources to shore up what’s weighed. And academics claim rankings don’t measure the quality of teaching and support – and can’t quantify learning and growth, either. These days, you’ll even find the DEI crowd clamoring that rankings just reinforce privilege.

WHY RANKINGS MATTER

In 2022, rankings took a hit – particularly in the business school space. The Economist, tired of being lampooned for its puzzling practices and rollercoaster results, tapped out of the rankings game. At the same time, Forbes pushed back its ranking another year. And let’s just say experts are growing suspicious when they can’t replicate Bloomberg Businessweek’s results. On a larger scale, data scandals involving Temple University and Columbia University have made prospective students increasingly skeptical of their accuracy. In the law school space, top schools are increasingly opting out of rankings entirely, often citing U.S. News for penalizing public service in its methodology.

Still, this trend hasn’t discouraged schools from plastering rankings on their press releases and email blasts. That’s because rankings equal prestige. They generate publicity, engage alumni, drive fundraising, attract applications, and provide job security. Still, all rankings carry the same defect: What you value is what you measure – and you get what you measure. When you place the wrong weights on the wrong measures, outlets invite scrutiny. They create anomalies that sharply deviate from peer rankings. When survey data is involved – the questions chosen and phrasing used – results can lack transparency as much as objectivity and consistency.

So why do candidates still pore over them? Simple: they act as a starting point, one supplied by a reputable source that enable users to easily compare schools side-by-side in key measures. Call it a warranty or insurance. Business school is a six figure, life-altering decision. It requires candidates to defer careers, sacrifice secure pay, and risk debt. After investing a year or two back on campus, who wants to huddle at their parents’ house plotting out their next move? A ranking may not guarantee a job – let alone a career change. At bare minimum, it gauges the market’s perception of a school’s MBA degree. The rest – research, networking, reflecting, and positioning – is up to candidates.

Wondering where do your favorite schools stack up? Here are 58 rankings stories from 2022 to help you understand where MBA programs stand – and why.

The vast majority of the top business schools have cooperated with the forthcoming global MBA ranking of the Financial Times

FINANCIAL TIMES

Wharton Returns To A Familiar Place In The 2022 Financial Times MBA Ranking

Ten Biggest Surprises In The Financial Times 2022 MBA Ranking

U.S. News has long been the most influential of all the MBA rankings

U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

Chicago Booth & Wharton Tie For First In New U.S. News MBA Ranking

Biggest Surprises in U.S. News’ 2022 MBA Ranking

Could U.S. News Kill The GMAT Exam?

New U.S. News Ranking Due In March

In The Economist’s 2022 Global MBA Ranking, Harvard Business School takes the top prize for the first time ever. Rounding out the Top Five are No. 2 Wharton, No. 3 Northwestern Kellogg, No. 4 Columbia Business School, and No. 5 MIT’s Sloan School of Management