Poets&Quants’ Most Popular (And Important) Stories Of 2020

Indiana Kelley

9. Another Top-25 Program Is Waiving The GMAT

In November, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business joined a growing group of top-25 B-schools in eschewing the Graduate Management Admission Test as a barometer of suitability for admission to its full-time MBA program. It’s just the latest development in B-schools’ evolving response to the new normal of life during coronavirus.

Our coverage of this development is ongoing, but see here, here, and here for further developments.

8. Poets&Quants’ 2019 MBA Ranking

Our new ranking has been released, but last year’s ranking — showing Stanford GSB as the top U.S. business school based on an aggregate of the top rankings — got most of its nearly half a million page views in 2020. This year’s ranking has the same result — Stanford on top, and little change in the top 10 or top 25 — but it’s based on fewer rankings, as Bloomberg Businessweek decided not to publish a ranking this year due to the pandemic and The Economist’s ranking was delayed and not included in the aggregate.

7. The Top One-Year MBA Programs In The U.S.

Here’s another one from 2019. Our semiannual story on the top one-year MBA programs gained a lot of steam in 2020, however, in large part because candidates for graduate business education were exploring other options besides two-year residential MBAs — once again, an effect of the coronavirus pandemic.

edweek.org

6. The OPT Program Is In Trump’s Crosshairs

Politics again — no surprise in an election year. Donald Trump’s antipathy toward non-Americans, even those with the demonstrated skills needed in a diverse economy, was on full display this year, particularly in his suspension of the H-1B visa program, a move that has since been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge. Before his announcement of the suspension in June. however, speculation was rampant that Trump would also suspend the Optional Practical Training program that allows graduates of U.S. business schools (and other programs) to stay and work in the U.S. for up to three years — giving them three cracks at securing an H-1B visa. But Trump never messed with OPT, too the relief of B-schools and scores of international students and MBAs.

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