“The top 14 schools are all from the US, and they occupy 42 of the top 60 positions. We’ve never seen anything like it,” was Matt Symonds’ comment regarding the 2017 Economist ranking of the full time MBA. Symonds is a Director at Fortuna Admissions, a consulting company that aims to get its clients into the best business schools worldwide.
Symonds is right of course. The dominance of US-schools in this year’s ranking is overbearing: Northwestern Kellogg was crowned number 1, followed by Booth which fell from first to second spot after five consecutive years at the top. Harvard Business School came in as the third winner followed by the Wharton School and Stanford University. All top ten schools were US-schools with the first European school on number 15: The HEC School of Management in Paris.
The University of Queensland Business School in Australia achieved a notable 16th spot, followed by more European competition, Spain’s Iese Business School and the UK’s Warwick Business School.
The Economist explains its volatility in the rankings by a blend of subjective and hard data. The survey involves personal development and educational experience, new career opportunities, increasing salary and the potential to network for example.
The Economist full time MBA ranking
1 Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management, United States
2 University of Chicago – Booth School of Business, United States
3 Harvard Business School, United States
4 University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School, United States
5 Stanford University – Graduate School of Business, United States
6 UCLA – UCLA Anderson School of Management, United States
7 University of California at Berkeley – Haas School of Business, United States
8 Dartmouth College – Tuck School of Business, United States
9 Columbia Business School, United States
10 University of Virginia – Darden School of Business, United States