“That’s alright, That’s OK. You’re gonna work for us someday.”

Forty years ago, Northwestern students would start this chant on autumn afternoons. Back then, the university’s football team was the doormat of the Big 10 Conference – smaller and slower than the future draft picks they faced. Still, the chant’s subtext was unmistakable: brains beat brawn. We’ll get the last laugh. You’ll see.

They were right. The football team has risen to hit-or-miss status. Academically, the Kellogg School of Management also claimed the #1 spot in the Poets&Quants 2024-2025 MBA Ranking, an amalgamation of the five most influential business school rankings. Just like a formidable football team, the high ranking comes with all the perks: prestige, credibility, and goodwill. In many ways, that Saturday chant has proven prophetic for Northwestern. The Kellogg School has moved past being a marketing school in the public eye. Now, it is associated with being what it has always been: a hotbed for management, finance, and entrepreneurial talent – the very people we’ll be working for someday.

THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES

Business school rankings bear all the hallmarks of sports standings. Who’s up? Who’s down? Who’s credible? Who’s overrated? They’re great conversation starters at the digital water cooler. While schools don’t face each other head-to-head, rankings provide a means for comparison. Which first-years posted the highest GMAT averages? Whose graduates landed the biggest paychecks? Which schools have the highest satisfaction rates? Such data tells users what’s possible and what’s feasible – the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ are up to them.

Most of all, rankings force schools to be transparent in their metrics and accountable to their results. In academia, administrators fear criticism more than competition. Unlike a binary won-loss record, most rankings offer underlying data for schools to benchmark themselves against peer schools. In other words, they provide a roadmap on where to invest to bring in the highest return – be it boosting outcomes, attracting talent, or building credibility. In the process, they can garner recognition and goose fund-raising too.

Alas, rankings carry a dark side. They can be biased and subjective, narrow and even intellectually dishonest. More often than not, they are lagging indicators with methodologies that weigh the wrong metrics – or the right ones in the wrong amounts. By nature, rankings operate like a box score. They struggle to quantify ineffable notions like growth, experience, happiness, and long-term performance. In some cases, they act as self-fulfilling prophecies, producing a virtuous cycle by rewarding brand name institutions with wide scale and deep resources. Considering the popularity of rankings, there is always the temptation for schools to ‘study to the test’ – prioritizing short-term efforts to inflate numbers over innovations that rarely show up in metrics.

A STARTING POINT FOR A DEEPLY PERSONAL DECISION

Amid the criticism, there remains one question: What is the alternative to rankings? In the end, does it really matter? After all, to paraphrase Elmer Wheeler, many prospective students may be hungry for steak, but often commit to the sizzle – the emotional ‘fit’ differentiators that center around culture, identity, values, and mission. By showing where schools stand, rankings provide a starting point for potential applicants, whose journey quickly veers into the deeply personal.

Every ranking measure something different. Want to know how senior executives view recent graduates? That’s CEOWorld’s specialty. Wondering how satisfied recent alumni are with their alma maters’ faculty quality or consulting programming? Check out The Princeton Review – a collection of 18 rankings derived heavily from graduate surveys. U.S. News & World Report relies heavily on input and output data supplemented by faculty and employer surveys. The Financial Times follows a similar method – only it features student and alumni surveys (and ranks schools beyond the American shores). And then there are more specialized rankings, such as P&Q’s Entrepreneurship Ranking, which focuses on the student experience in areas ranging from coursework to support services.

In 2024, P&Q authored 101 articles pertaining to rankings. They feature analysis for all the big names – along with increasingly popular rankings from Fortune. LinkedIn, and QS. That doesn’t count P&Q’s original entrepreneurship, online MBA, and undergraduate business school rankings. Along the way, you’ll also find rankings ranging from admissions consultants to academic specializations to return on investment. Wondering where your target schools compare against their peers? Check out this year’s rankings and analysis in the links below.