Financial Times 2024 MBA Ranking: 10 Biggest Surprises

Erika James, Dean of Goizueta Business School

9) Wharton Is Back

Last year, the biggest shock of the Financial Times ranking was the disappearance of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. For the first time in what was then 25 years of rankings, Wharton didn’t even make the list. The school failed to meet the minimum response rate on the FT’s alumni survey and was tossed off the ranking as a result.

Not this year.

The big surprise is that Wharton not merely returned to the ranking. For the 12th time in 26 ranking years, it zoomed straight to the top. No school, not Harvard, Stanford or INSEAD, has scored as many first-place wins in this ranking than Wharton. Harvard has won just seven times to come in well behind Wharton.

Wharton scored well across many of the metrics used by the FT to rank full-time MBA programs. It had the highest ranking of any school for academic research, measured by recent faculty publications in leading academic and practitioner journals, Wharton’s alumni also reported the third-highest average weighted salaries at $245,772, adjusted for those working in different sectors and for international purchasing power parity, three years after completing their courses.
That’s good news for Wharton and well-deserved recognition as its university continues to deal with the fallout of major donors who have abandoned the university over accusations of anti-semitism. While the controversy engulfed the University of Pennsylvania, forcing the resignation of its president, Wharton Dean Erika James has smartly remained above the fray.

When she publicly addressed the issue at an event in November at the Economic Club of New York, James made clear she believes that Penn is responsible for restoring its reputation and mending relationships with donors who accused the University of tolerating antisemitism, Wharton Dean Erika James said on Nov. 7.

“I don’t experience my colleagues, for example, within the University as antisemitic, but I recognize that many of the activities that are happening right now would lead to that impression,” James said at the event. “It’s our responsibility to repair those relationships. It’s our responsibility to address the backlash from the donors,”

Gaining a number-one ranking from the Financial Times can’t hurt the cause.

 

10) Who’s Up, Who’s Down

Every ranking has winners and losers, even though any school that earns a place among the top 100 full-time MBA programs in the world should be thought of as a winner.

Inevitably, however, the schools that rise or fall by double-digits often get plenty of attention from students, alumni, and faculty. Big ranking declines, particularly over several years, can spell disaster for a dean.

Here are the schools that lost the most ground and still managed to stay in the ranking.

And the big gainers?