The result is mostly unsurprising: Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business has a slight edge over Harvard Business School, whilst the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School is the third well-known and highly regarded school on the list. Other US-American schools that ended up in the top ten are the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Columbia Business School, Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, as well as MIT Sloan.

Two non-U.S.-business schools proved themselves as standouts, however, and these were Insead as well as London Business School. Insead came in fourth, whereas London Business School tied for eighth place with Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.

“The real surprise may well be Insead’s showing above many so-called M7 schools, generally thought to have the best MBA programs in the world. The school, with campuses in Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore, has an acceptance rate (estimated at just above 30 per cent) that is well above rivals and an average GMAT score for its incoming class that, at 701, is below 14 U.S. MBA programs. But Insead’s more global makeup and its shorter one-year program has appeal to many of the best candidates in the applicant pool,” the Poets&Qants’ author explains Insead’s success.

The article also muses if the school achieves such an elite group of students by having a “robust set of essay questions and requiring candidates to go through two interviews”.

Overall the results of the survey are quite a good fit to the various rankings as well as the reputation of the schools which is no surprise according to one expert, the website quotes. Typically the best applicants are deciding on which schools to attend based on “a school’s relative ranking, fit between curriculum and post-MBA career goals, appeal of campus culture, offers of merit-based aid, and geographic location,” Dan Bauer, founder and CEO of The MBA Exchange, said to Poets&Quants.

Read more at Fortune