P&Q’s Must Reads: 2026 Financial Times MBA Ranking: MIT Tops List For The First Time  

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: 2026 Financial Times MBA Ranking: MIT Tops List For The First Time 

For the first time ever, MIT’s Sloan School of Management climbed into first place in the newest Financial Times MBA ranking. In 28 years of ranking MBA programs, the school had only finished in the Top Five twice in 2000 and 1999 when the FT ranking debuted. Only five years ago, MIT ranked 13th on this list. 

No less surprising than Sloan’s first place finish is the absence of three of the world’s best MBA program: Stanford, Columbia, and SDA Bocconi in Italy.  

Find out why the programs were left off the FT list as well as our full ranking analysis now, in our trending tab. 

No. 2: 40% Of International Candidates Now Less Likely To Study In U.S. 

When Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, most international MBA hopefuls said the election wouldn’t change their plans. 

Within months, that changed dramatically. 

By December 2025, 40% of non-U.S. graduate management candidates said they were less likely to study in the United States under a Trump presidency, according to a report from the Graduate Management Admission Council. 

Dig into all the eye-popping data from the report, released this week, now from our homepage.  

No. 3: Nominate Your Favorite Business School Professor Under The Age Of 40  

Attention business students, faculty, alumni, and administrators: Nominations for Poets&Quants’ annual Best 40-Under-40 are now open! And, this year, the honor is open to more innovate business professors from around the world. 

Beginning for 2026’s list, we have expanded the honor beyond the MBA to include faculty teaching across graduate business programs – from MiMs to specialized master’s degrees in finance and analytics to newer programs centered on AI and emerging technologies. 

You’ll find the full eligibility guidelines and the nomination form in this article, which you can find in our news tab.  

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: 8 Critical Questions To Ask Yourself Before Taking The MBA Plunge. Find the article on our homepage. 

Next: What Is ‘Too Much Information’ In MBA Applications? How To Walk The Fine Line This article, up now in our admissions hub, explains what to share and what not to when telling your personal story. Find this helpful article in our admissions hub. 

Finally, also in our admission hub: The Top MBA Admissions Consultants Of 2025. Don’t forget this list in your search for an MBA consultant to help you get into the school of your dreams. 

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. 

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.