They’re out, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business can pop the bubbly this year. We’re talking, of course, about this year’s U.S. News & World Report ranking of the nation’s best MBA programs, released today. Chicago Booth has claimed its first-ever No. 1 rank. It tied for first with Harvard Business School (HBS), which has held or shared the No. 1 spot for four years running.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, which tied HBS for first last year, slipped to third. Stanford Graduate School of Business, meanwhile, remained constant in fourth place for a second year. Last year, the California school was in a three-way tie for the No. 4 four spot with MIT Sloan and Kellogg, but this year, those schools slipped to fifth and sixth respectively.
At quick glance, here are this year’s top 10, in order of their 2019 rank (2018 rank in parentheses):
1 Harvard Business School (1, tie)
1 University of Chicago Booth School of Business (3)
3 University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (1, tie)
4 Stanford Graduate School of Business (4, tie)
5 MIT Sloan School of Management (4, tie)
6 Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management (4, tie)
7 UC Berkeley Haas School of Business (7)
7 University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business (11)
9 Columbia Business School (9)
10 Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business (8)
Chicago Booth is not the only school celebrating today. The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business not only cracked the top 10 for the first time since 2005—which U.S. News revealed last week when it provided a sneak peek of the schools that would comprise the top of the list—it tied for seventh with UC Berkeley’s Haas School. In so doing, it sidled past Columbia and displaced Dartmouth’s Tuck School to 10th place. And it knocked Yale SOM out of the top 10 altogether.
What’s going on at Ross to result in its huge gains? How did Chicago Booth go from never having cracked the top three before to doing it two times in a row and then landing No. 1? And what’s up with Stanford, which didn’t even medal this year—again. These are some of the questions our upcoming analysis piece will drill into, as well as some of the surprising victories and upsetting backslides elsewhere in the rankings, beyond the top 10. Stay tuned for that piece later today.
And in the meantime, if you haven’t already heard our latest Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast episode on MBA rankings, check it out now. It offers valuable advice on just how much credence to lend to this or any ranking as part of your overall strategy to research and select the best business school for you.
More soon!
