MBA Ranking: Business School Careers, Culture And Curriculum

In terms of Classroom Experience, Stanford GSB repeated as the highest scorer. Georgia Tech Scheller moved up a spot to 2nd, as Northwestern Kellogg made its Top 10 debut at #3. While Virginia Darden slipped from 2nd to 4th in Classroom Experience, it rose from 4th to 1st in the Best Professors category – all while last year’s top performer, Michigan Ross, tumbled three spots to 4th. Call Darden’s ascension in Best Professors a return to normal. After all, Darden is the destination for faculty who want their teaching to be valued and rewarded. Here, students digest over 500 business cases to hone their problem-solving and decision-making skills. Think of a Darden classroom as the c-suite. After synthesizing a trove of often-conflicting information, Darden MBAs must defend – and often adapt – their positions on the issue at hand. All the while, the professor acts as both guide and devil’s advocate.

“Darden’s professors are a different breed,” writes first-year Jade Kimpson. “They really live and breathe what they do. They want us to learn and succeed. I signed up to learn from the passionate ones, and Darden delivered. Learning from people who love what they do? That’s what it’s all about.”

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE IN ITHACA

Virginia Darden also notched the highest score for its Campus Environment. On Darden’s Charlottesville campus, you’ll find wide courtyards punctuated by neo-classical red brick and columned architecture – with the Smoky Mountains serving as a backdrop. While Cornell Johnson slipped from 1st to 3rd in Campus Environment, the school rallied to rank 1st in both Family Friendliness and Administration. When it comes to the former, it is hard to top Ithaca, centerpiece of the Finger Lakes region. The ultimate college town, Ithaca’s downtown is packed with farmer’s markets, wine tastings, and art exhibits. Plus, MBAs can enjoy the best of a four seasons experience: hiking, biking, swimming, golfing, skiing, ice skating, snowmobiling – you name it!

“It’s the perfect size and place to be for a two-year MBA program specifically,” says ’23 alum Veronique Falkovich. “It’s small enough that you are always surrounded by your fellow students and will constantly run into people you know. At the same time, it’s large enough that there are places to get away and enjoy nature or a quiet space. It’s a town that encourages being involved in your MBA community while still giving you space to be yourself.”

Northwestern Kellogg continued its patten of making splashy debuts in 2024, joining the proceedings by ranking 2nd for Family Friendliness, 7th for Administration, and 8th for Campus Environment. After ranking as the top program for Administration over the past two years, Michigan Ross tumbled out of The Princeton Review’s Top 10 entirely – a red flag for a dean who just joined the program in 2022. A major surprise: Iowa State’s Ivy College broke into the Administration Top 10 at #3. Here’s another surprise: While top-tier MBA programs are sometimes depicted as cutthroat, the most competitive school, according to students surveyed, were often found outside this realm: Drexel LeBow. Similarly, the best program for integrating ESG principles – or the “Greenest” schools – also hailed from outside the beaten path. In this category, Bard College earned the highest marks from students and alumni surveyed (though Yale SOM and Cornell Johnson both cracked the Top 10).

THE EQ DIFFERENCE

Looking for the best school for women and minority students? NYU Stern was the only program to rank among the Top 10 in both categories, finishing 3rd (Women) and 6th (Minorities). Among women, Washington Foster repeated as the best school for women. Northwestern Kellogg, unranked in this category last year, claimed the #2 spot. Similarly, Howard University again held the #1 spot for Resources for Minorities. Despite this, Howard tumbled out of the Top 10 in Resources for Women after placing 3rd in this category last year. In both cases, the ranking was based on a mix of student and faculty population data and surveys directed to students covering everything from school resources to culture.

Traditionally, Stanford GSB accepts roughly 6%-8% of applications – or roughly a fourth of the combined rate of the Top 10 MBA programs. True to form, Stanford GSB ranks atop The Princeton Review’s list of the schools with the toughest admissions. Along the way, Stanford beat out Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan, where the acceptance rates were 13.2% and 17.8% respectively in 2023. Toughest Admissions is also the only category that relies exclusively on school-supplied data.

The final category, Career Prospects, combines hard school data and soft student responses. The former encompasses starting salaries and placement rates within three months of graduation. The latter adds survey data covering alumni, recruiting, internships and mentoring. In this measure, Stanford GSB knocked NYU Stern off its perch, with the latter sliding to 2nd. In a surprise, Georgia Tech’s Scheller debuted at #3, while Dartmouth Tuck and Northwestern Kellogg retained their 4th and 5th spots.

What’s behind NYU Stern’s success in this category? Last year, the school produced the 3rd-highest base pay at $191,768. At the same time, Stern averaged a 94.3% placement rate, comparable to peer schools like Northwestern Kellogg. However, it is the school’s commitment to finding candidates who combine a strong IQ and EQ that has made the program so attractive to employers, explains Stern Interim Dean JP Eggers, in a 2023 interview with P&Q

“EQ is core to Stern’s values; we screen for it, we stress it in our admissions process. I can confirm that when I speak with employers (recruiters and hiring managers) and ask about what they see from our students that is different, this is 100% what they say – Stern MBAs are team-oriented, cooperative, fun to be around, different and unique, and possess high EQ. At the same time, Stern MBAs bring strong tech and quantitative skills to the table. Data analytics is part of Stern’s core curriculum and is built into so many classes throughout the MBA experience. In today’s global, tech-driven environment, it’s a cost of entry requirement for doing business.”

18 RANKINGS MEAN 180 STORIES

Beyond The Princeton Review ranking, there are also business school ratings. Embedded inside the site’s school profiles, three of the ratings – Academic Experience, Professors Interesting, and Professors Accessible – are based on a 60-99 student scoring scale where 99 is the ceiling. A fourth rating, focused on careers, is driven by hard data that incudes starting pay, three-month placement and student survey responses centered around quality of recruiting companies, career services, career preparation, campus projects, internships, and mentorships (using the same 60-99).

While invaluable in theory, the ratings could use further refinement in practice. After all, from reviewing six programs – Stanford GSB, Duke Fuqua, Emory Goizueta, Rochester Simon, Texas Tech Rawls, and Oregon Lundquist – a pattern emerged. All but one score ran between 91-99 (with the lowest score being 89). In other words, the ratings fall prey to the Lake Wobegon Effect. With respondents scoring their institutions high, they reduce the differences between schools to a nominal level.

Wondering where your target schools achieve the highest rankings? Click on the links below to see which schools achieved the highest satisfaction rates from students and alumni in 18 categories.

CLASSROOM

CULTURE

CAREER PROSPECTS & ADMISSIONS

RESOURCES (WOMEN, MINORITIES, ENVIRONMENT)

CURRICULUM (CONSULTING, FINANCE, MARKETING, ETC.)

SCHOOLS WITH MOST TOP 10 FINISHES