Wharton Claims Sole Possession Of First In New U.S. News MBA Ranking

After sharing first place with Stanford’s Graduate School of Business last year, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School claimed sole possession of first in the 2025 U.S. News MBA ranking released today (April 8). Stanford slipped into a tie with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, followed by Chicago Booth and MIT Sloan.

Kellogg not only edged up one place in the full-time MBA ranking; it also gained a first place tie in U.S. News part-time MBA ranking with Chicago Booth and Berkeley Haas.

Harvard Business School’s full-time MBA languished in sixth place, the same spot it occupied last year, but this time around it has to share that position with Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and New York University’s Stern School of Business. Rounding out this year’s Top 10 on U.S. News MBA ranking is No. 9 Columbia Business School and No. 10 Yale University’s School of Management.

Among the Top 25 MBA programs, the biggest moves were made by Ohio State University’s Fisher School of Business, up seven places, to rank 24th and the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, gaining five places to rank 22nd. The University of Southern California’s Marshall School fell six spots to place 24th, while the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School dropped eight spots to land outside the Top 25 in 28th place.

U.S. NEWS MBA RANKING: A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP

While business school deans have long had a love/hate relationship with rankings, they acknowledge that U.S. News‘ annual list of the best full-time MBA programs is the most influential in shaping the perception of a schools’ reputation.  A new survey of deans by Poets&Quants, in collaboration with Miami’s Herbert College of Business, found that three of every four deans believe U.S. News‘ MBA ranking is the most critical in impacting attitudes of school quality–more than three times as influential as the Financial Times.

As you dig deeper into the ranking, the ups and downs become much more dramatic. American University’s Kogod School of Business zoomed up 27 places to rank 58th, while the University of Arkansas Walton College of Business soared 24 spots to place 50th. Two MBA programs dropped by 21 places each–the largest single drops this year–at William & Mary and St. Louis University, respectively plunging to 61st and 118th.

Twenty-two schools experienced double-digit changes in this year’s rankings. These dramatic shifts underscore the limitations of the the U.S. News MBA ranking in evaluating institutions with smaller cohort sizes, where slight year-over-year changes in inputs can have a disproportionately large impact on a school’s ranking. The consistent volatility raises legitimate questions about the credibility of the rankings.

The Top Ten MBA Programs In U.S. News 2024 Ranking

Rank & School	Salary & Bonus	Placement Rate*	Admit Rate	Median GMAT**	Median GPA
1. Pennsylvania (Wharton)	$200,724	90.4%	20.5%	740	3.7
2. Stanford	$206,955	80.6%	6.8%	740	3.8
2. Northwestern (Kellogg)	$199,146	89.6%	28.6%	740	3.8
4. Chicago (Booth)	$204,099	89.2%	28.7%	730	3.7
5. MIT (Sloan)	$195,480	82.4%	14.1%	730	3.7
6. Harvard	$193,505	78.4%	11.2%	740	3.7
6. NYU (Stern)	$200,759	89.6%	25.1%	740	3.7
6. Dartmouth (Tuck)	$200,298	90.7%	31.2%	730	3.6
9. Columbia Business School	$194,287	83.7%	20.9%	740	3.7
10. Yale	$186,447	84.9%	27.3%	730	3.6

* Employment rates three months after graduation is an average over the past two years. ** Reported GMAT scores are for the old exam

WHAT U.S. NEWS MEASURES–AND WHAT IT DOESN’T

Of course, where an MBA program ends up on this list is wholly dependent on the metrics U.S. News gathers to rank a school. If U.S. News included a metric on yield, the percentage of accepted applicants who enroll, the size of a school’s endowment, and the amount of scholarship aid given to MBA students, Harvard would not rank sixth on the list. That’s because no business school in the world has an endowment as large as Harvard Business School and endowment size impacts the quality of the faculty, staff and students a school can recruit. Only Stanford rivals HBS on yield, and no school provides more scholarship aid to students than Harvard. Some 84.5% of candidates accepted by HBS attend the school vs. Stanford’s 85.1%; HBS’s endowment hit $5.4 billion last year, and the school funneled $53 million in fellowships to its MBA students.

What does get measured by U.S. News is another matter. Half of the ranking is based on placement and starting pay. U.S. News puts a 7% weight on placement at graduation and 13% on employment rate three months after graduation. Some 20% of the ranking is simply based on average starting salary and bonus of the latest graduating class Another 10% is based on average salary by seven professions that range from consulting to operations/logistics.

This is where Harvard Business School fell behind rivals. Starting pay for Harvard MBAs is now nearly $13,500 below Stanford MBA grads who earn the most at $206,955 vs. Harvard’s $193,505. Employment rates for Harvard MBAs were among the worst for any top MBA program at 78.4% three months after graduation, more than a dozen percentage points below Dartmouth Tuck which was at 90.7% last year, best of the Top Ten. The median undergraduate grade point average for Harvard of 3.7 was a touch below Stanford and Kellogg, both at 3.8.

The remaining half is based on student selectivity and surveys meant to capture the perspectives of academic peers and corporate recruiters. U.S. News assigns a weight of 13% on average GMAT and GRE scores of the entering class, Some 10% is put on undergraduate GPAs of the newest cohort, and finally 2% is given over to a school’s acceptance rate. Surveys sent to deans and program directors are given a 12.5% weight, while another survey to recruiters also is weighted 12.5%.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly named the school that lost the most ground in this year’s ranking. We regret the error.