P&Q’s Must Reads: Poets&Quant’s 2024-2025 MBA Ranking: For The First Time Ever, Kellogg Takes First

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: Poets&Quant’s 2024-2025 MBA Ranking: Kellogg Takes First

For the first time since Poets&Quants began ranking full-time MBA programs in 2010, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management has earned top honors on our 2024-2025 list of the best MBA programs in the U.S. 

Kellogg slipped past last year’s winner, Stanford Graduate School of Business, by outdistancing the West Coast giant of business education in this year’s Financial Times ranking. In the FT list, the GSB shockingly slumped to a 15th-place finish while Kellogg also scored  slightly higher on student experience.

Unlike other rankings, the 15th annual Poets&Quants list combines the most influential business school rankings in the world into one composite ranking. Go to our homepage now to see which schools finished in the top 10.

No. 2: INSEAD Breaks Through As The Financial Times’s Top European B-School

In more ranking news, The Financial Times also released its ranking of the best European business schools, and it was France’s INSEAD at the top.

 INSEAD jumped an incredible 17 places from last year as its MiM program, launched in 2019, was factored into its overall score for the first time, giving the French school programs in all categories in the magazine’s ranking.

HEC Paris, meanwhile, fell out of first place in the Euro B-school ranking for the first time in six years.

You’ll find the full list of FT’s best European Business School in our rankings tab.

No. 3:   Setbacks In 2024 Placement & Salary For Grads Of Another Top U.S. MBA Program 

While most top MBA programs in the United States have yet to release their 2024 reports, the few we have gotten are pointing to an alarming development: declines in the percentage of MBAs who found jobs three months after graduation and in the average starting base salary of the graduating class.

It’s too early to tell whether softer than usual employment and salary data at schools like Vanderbilt Owen, Georgia Tech Scheller and NYU Stern will turn into a bona fide trend for U.S. MBA programs, but the data certainly suggests a tougher job market for than previous years. 

You can find our reporting on the latest Class of 2024 employment reports in our MBA jobs tab from the main menu.

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: Why Now Is A Great Time To Apply To International MBA Programs. The results of the US presidential election have injected a large dose of uncertainty into the global arena. One thing is certain: business will remain an international endeavor. You can read the full analysis from our homepage. 

Next: How To Apply To Business School In Fewer Than 6 Weeks. This article, which you can find in our admissions hub, will help you get to the finish line when time is of the essence. 

Finally: Top Tips For Military Veterans Applying To B-School This article, also up in our admissions hub, will help veterans position themselves to be strong MBA candidates.

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

I also want to alert school seekers to our events tab from our main menu. There, you’ll find all the upcoming admissions events for a range of degrees and programs including full-time and online MBAs, specialized masters, entrepreneurship and more. Registration is 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.