P&Q’s Must Reads: The 100 Best & Brightest MBAs: Class Of 2025 

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:   The 100 Best & Brightest MBAs: Class Of 2025 

This week, we are proud to present 100 full-time graduates honored in Poets&Quants’ Best & Brightest MBAs from the Class of 20254. Now in its 11th year, the Best & Brightest honors top graduate business students at elite MBA programs worldwide. At an uncertain time in the world, these remarkable young people would give even a cynic hope for the future. 

This year’s list features 100 exceptional MBAs from 61 top business schools. Candidates were evaluated on their extracurricular leadership, personal excellence, and the insightfulness of their responses and recommendations.

You can read about each MBA, now on our homepage.

No. 2: Meet The Woman Behind One Of The World’s First Perfect GMAT Focus Scores 

Breaking barriers in business education takes more than just talent — it requires strategy, resilience, and the courage to lead. Julia Shackelford has all three. 

Last year the Fayetteville, Arkansas native joined the rarified ranks of test-takers who have scored a perfect 805 on the new GMAT Focus Edition — getting all 21 Quantitative Reasoning, 23 Verbal Reasoning, and 20 Data Insights questions correct. It’s a feat few have achieved.

You can read how she did it in this story, up now in our trending tab.

No. 3: Judge Denies Injunction in Yale Student’s AI Suspension

A federal judge has denied a Yale Executive MBA student’s request to return to campus and graduate with his cohort, siding with Yale School of Management after it suspended the student for allegedly using generative AI to complete a final exam.

Thierry Rignol, a French national and entrepreneur based in Texas, also lost the right to sue anonymously and has since been named publicly.

It’s not the first time a student has sued a university – or even a business school – over AI use in classroom settings. But it does raise some sticky questions: What happens when universities and business schools rush to integrate AI into their curriculums while punishing students for using the very same tools? 

You can read about the new rulings in detail, as well as the specifics of the original lawsuit, in this story which is up on our homepage.

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: Harvard, Stanford & Wharton MBAs On How Admission Consultants Helped Them Get In.  In this article, now up on our homepage, P&Q editor talks to three top candidates on their admission process.  

Next: Real Talk About The MBA Waitlist In this column, Northstar Admissions founder Karen Marks offers her advice for getting off the dreaded list. You can find it in our admission hub.

Finally: Five Questions To Help You Choose Between An MBA And An MBT: This story from Purdue Daniels explain the differences between the MBA and the STEM-designated Master of Business and Technology. You’ll also find it in our admission hub.

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.