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

The Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut was ranked in four MBA specializations in 2024 — despite not being ranked at all in U.S. News’ overall ranking

Every year Poets&Quants writes about the popularity contests that are U.S. News’ MBA specialization rankings, and how their methodology — simple surveys of of B-school deans and program directors, many of whom vote on schools they know little or nothing about — enables a bloc of small, mostly unranked Jesuit schools to make a name for themselves in various disciplines. The schools can be found in nearly every one of the 13 sub-rankings, often clustered in the lower half but sometimes sliding upward to claim space next to more well-known neighbors.

Jesuit schools are Catholic schools that subscribe to a philosophy of “educating the whole person,” in the description of Santa Clara’s Leavey School of Business, a school ranked by U.S. News in four specializations this year despite not ranking overall. “It’s easy to talk about working to make the world a better place,” the San Francisco Bay Area school states, “but the Jesuits have been doing that work, every day, for almost 500 years.” According to Xavier University, a Cincinnati, Ohio school whose Williams College of Business also ranked in four specializations, “Emphasis is placed on learning through community service, interdisciplinary courses and the engagement of faith, theology, philosophy and ethics studies.”

We don’t want to pick on these B-schools, all of which are accredited and respected institutions. But their inclusion in some of the individual rankings often leads to silly outcomes. For example, of the 35 schools ranked for Finance this year, 12 are Jesuit schools; the unranked Heider College of Business at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska tied for 10th with UCLA Anderson School of Management and Boston Carroll School of Management, just below Michigan Ross and above Duke Fuqua, Texas McCombs, Northwestern Kellogg, Cornell Johnson, Yale SOM, UNC Kenan-Flagler, and Dartmouth Tuck.

In Accounting, Fordham Gabelli, tied for 62nd overall, placed No. 14, one place above Harvard; meanwhile Fairfield Dolan and Seattle Albers, both unranked, tied with ASU Carey for No. 16, and unranked Saint Joseph’s Haub School of Business in Philadelphia ranked No. 21, one spot above Columbia, MIT Sloan, and Berkeley Haas. In Business Analytics, Santa Clara Leavey was No. 11, one over Harvard; Seattle Albers 16th, one spot over UCLA Anderson and three over Cornell Johnson,  Michigan Ross, and Washington Foster. And in Marketing, Leavey (at No. 12) and Gabelli (at No. 13) ranked over Yale (No. 15); Xavier (No. 16) ranked over Dartmouth and Kelley at No. 17, and Fairfield and Saint Joseph’s Haub tied with them — and all were ranked over Cornell, Darden, UNC, Ohio State, and Arizona State.

Here’s how the Jesuit schools rank in the “Quant” specializations: