Such rankings allow schools that don’t always make it to the top 10 for overall marks to finally see what it feels like to be on top regarding specific impressive elements of their program.

Top 10 U.S. MBA Programs – Accounting

1. Chicago Booth

1. Texas-Austin McCombs

3. Rochester Simon

3. Boston College Carroll

5. U. of Washington Foster

5. Vanderbilt Owen

5. Babson Olin

5. Arizona State Carey

9. Harvard Business School

10. Wharton

Top 10 U.S. MBA Programs – Finance

1. Wharton

2. Chicago Booth

3. Columbia

4. Northeastern

5. Boston College Carroll

5. Case Western Weatherhead

7. Harvard Business School

8. Minnesota Carlson

8. Wisconsin-Madison

8. George Washington

Top 10 U.S. MBA Programs – Most Innovative Curriculums

1. Stanford

2. Chicago Booth

3. Indiana Kelley

4. Yale

4. USC Marshall

4. Texas A&M Mays

4. Tulane Freeman

8. Boston University

8. Rochester Simon

8. George Washington

Top 10 U.S. MBA Programs – Most Improved

1. Georgia Tech

1. Boston University

1. Northeastern

4. Indiana Kelley

5. Wake Forest

5. Arizona State Carey

7. Dartmouth Tuck

7. Brigham Young Marriott

7. Texas A&M Mays

7. Pittsburgh Katz

For rankings based on global competition, general management, communication skills, teamwork, or operations, as well as for an analysis on how the rankings were determined, please see the BW article. There is also a section there on global MBA programs ranked by specialty.

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The Chicago Booth EMBA questions are challenging because they break up a concept that for many people is holistic: the need for the MBA and interest in the program – the first question asks, among other things, “Why are you seeking an MBA from Chicago Booth” and the second question asks “what you hope to gain from the MBA.”  While the first question is wide ranging and includes what you’ll contribute to the program, the second question focuses on your goals. I suggest doing the second question first, because the goals discussion will provide context for what you hope to gain specifically from Chicago Booth.  Taken together, these two questions allow you to create a well-rounded picture, with sharp focus on career in essay 2, and an opportunity to present selected highlights of your career (and non-work activities as well) in essay 1.  In both essays, beware of the tendency to present a career summary.  That’s the job of your resume.

Question 1

Why are you seeking an MBA from Chicago Booth and what do you hope to experience and contribute while in the program? (maximum two pages, single spaced, 12pt. Times New Roman)

Let’s break this question into three parts.  Part 1: why you’re seeking the MBA from Chicago Booth.  This section should address the specific education you hope to acquire, presumably dictated to large extent by your goals.  It can also address other benefits you desire, such as the chance to interact with peers from diverse industries and sectors.  In answering this part of the question, be specific about Booth’s offerings and add some insight or reflection, don’t just reiterate points from the website.  If you can cite conversations with students or alumni, that’s fantastic; give examples of insights you’ve gained from them.

Part 2: what you hope to experience.  This part can be seen in two ways, what you want to experience externally, e.g., intellectual rigor or collaborative environment; and internally, e.g., a broadening of perspective.

Part 3: what you hope to contribute.  This is your chance to showcase aspects of your career and your personal experience that distinguish and differentiate you.  You can discuss work points exclusively or work and non-work. Select a few things that complement each other and provide some depth and detail about each, rather than a “laundry list” of points.  Also, think strategically on this last part.  Think about what Chicago Booth values and what the rest of your application doesn’t reveal.

You may also be interested in “The Art of a Gripping MBA Goals Essay, an on-demand webinar.”

Question 2

Chicago Booth Career Services delivers innovative educational programming, offers one-on-one coaching, provides numerous networking opportunities, and provides access to job search tools in order to support your own career management. We would like to learn more about your career strategy and objectives. Please outline your career objectives, how you hope to achieve them, and what you hope to gain from the MBA to help you achieve them. (maximum 1 page, single spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman)

By starting off this question with a listing of its career resources, the Chicago adcom is showing that the program is invested in your career success.  You should demonstrate your worthiness of this investment by delivering a thoughtful and detailed portrayal of your career objectives.  Discuss not just general aspirations but specifics: industry, likely positions, which company or companies, possibly where, what you expect to do, possibly challenges you anticipate – and as the question says, how.  To make the essay transcend competent and become compelling, also show how your goals are rooted in your experience, what motivates your goals, and your vision for your goals.  Finally, discuss the learning needs these goals engender that necessitate an MBA.

Optional essay

If there is anything else you would like the admissions committee to know about you, please share that information here. If your previous studies have not included quantitative courses (e.g., accounting, statistics, calculus, etc.) please use this question to provide information about your preparation for the quantitative coursework in the executive MBA program (e.g., GMAT, professional certifications, etc.) (maximum one page, single spaced, 12pt. Times New Roman)

This question invites you to present new material that you think will enhance your application, as well as to explain anything that needs explaining (e.g., gap in employment, choice of recommender if not using a direct supervisor, etc.).  As far as non-necessary points, keep in mind that if you are making the adcom read more than is required, there should be a clear value to the information you’re sharing. Also, because essay 1 asks you what you will contribute, make sure that any additional “enhancement” topics here aren’t things that really belong there. Finally, keep it short – 300-400 words should suffice in most cases.

First Deadline February 1, 2011; final deadline April 1, 2011 (Chicago and London) and April 15, 2011 (Singapore).  Program begins June 20, 2011.

If you would like help with Chicago’s executive MBA essays, please consider Accepted.com’s Chicago Executive MBA Packages or our other MBA admissions consulting and MBA essay editing services.

By Cindy Tokumitsu, co-author of The EMBA Edge, and author of the free, email mini-course, “Ace the EMBA.”

Top 30 U.S. Business Schools of 2010 (2008 rankings are parenthetical.)

1. Chicago Booth (1)
2. Harvard Business School (2)
3. Wharton (4)
4. Northwestern Kellogg (3)
5. Stanford GSB (6)
6. Duke Fuqua (8)
7. Michigan Ross (5)
8. UC Berkeley Haas (10)
9. Columbia (7)
10. MIT Sloan (9)
11. UVA Darden (16)
12. Southern Methodist Cox (18)
13. Cornell Johnson (11)
14. Dartmouth Tuck (12)
15. CMU Tepper (19)
16. UNC Kenan-Flagler (17)
17. UCLA Anderson (14)
18. NYU Stern (13)
19. Indiana Kelley (15)
20. Michigan State Broad (2T)
21. Yale SOM (24)
22. Emory Goizueta (23)
23. Georgia Tech (29)
24. Notre Dame Mendoza (20)
25. Texas-Austin McCombs (21)
26. USC Marshall (25)
27. Brigham Young Marriott (22)
28. Minnesota Carlson (2T)
29. Rice Jones (NR)
30. Texas A&M Mays (NR)

Top International Business Schools

1. INSEAD (3)
2. Queen’s (1)
3. IE Business School (2)
4. ESADE (6)
5. London Business School (5)
6. Western Ontario Ivey (4)
7. IMD (7)
8. Toronto Rotman (8)
9. York Schulich (2T)
10. Cambridge Judge (2T)
11. McGill Desautels (2T)
12. IESE (9)
13. Cranfield (NR)
14. HEC Paris (2T)
15. HEC Montreal (HR)
16. Oxford Said (10)
17. Manchester (2T)
18. SDA Bocconi (NR)

BW bases its rankings on employer and student surveys, as well as what they call “intellectual capital,” or school research output. For more information on how the rankings are determined, read BW‘s “How We Rank Business Schools.”

Other articles in the report that may interest you include:

• “The Best U.S. Business Schools 2010” – This article highlights ways that business schools are dealing with the sour job market—putting a new emphasis on job placement, reaching out to alumni for job leads, using technology to connect with recruiters, and bolstering career services departments.
• “Top Global Business Schools” – Read about how the Great Recession has affected the international MBA scene, why new schools have popped up on the top 10, why students are being drawn to emerging markets, and more.

Related Accepted.com Resources:

• The Rankings, a free special report on how you should interpret the rankings in your own b-school quest.
• Internationalizing the MBA, a free special report that will help you determine whether an international MBA program is right for you.

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The lead article to the new BW rankings, “Part-Time MBAs: Greater Expectations,” explains how student motives are shifting away from career advancement to a switch in job or career placement. Because of this shift, students are expressing a greater demand for career services than did their predecessors.

Monica Powell, associate dean at the UT-Dallas School of Management, explains:

When you talk to this current group and ask them why they are pursuing this degree, students say they are doing it because they want to make themselves more marketable in the job arena, distinguish themselves from others, and further their educational backgrounds. It’s partly generational because of Gen Y and the Millennials, but there’s been a shift away from doing the degree for the company toward doing it for themselves. For them, it is almost as if they are doing this as an insurance policy for their careers. If they are going to be on the chopping block, maybe they will be later in line if they have this degree, as opposed to the head of the line.

Why do Gen Yers and Millennials feel the need to pursue an MBA as insurance? It always comes back to the same thing: The Economy.

And now…the rankings:

Top 10 Part-Time MBA Programs (Rated best for…/average salary increase)

1. CMU Tepper (Job changers, 44%)
2. Drexel LeBow (Career switchers, 24.9%)
3. U. of Richmond Robins (Job changers, 47.5%)
4. Maryland Smith (Career switchers, 31.9%)
5. Lehigh University (Career advancers, 18.2%)
6. U. of Nebraska (Job changers, 60.7%)
7. Michigan Ross (Career switchers, 44%)
8. Indiana University Southeast (Job changers/career switchers, 28.9%)
9. Chicago Booth (Career switchers, 33.2%)
10. Case Western Reserve Weatherhead (Career switchers, 38.4%)

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Let’s start with the actual rankings.

Top 15 International EMBA Programs

1.   Kellogg / Hong Kong UST Business School – China

2.   Columbia / London Business School – USA / UK

3.   Trium HEC Paris / LSE / NYU Stern – France / UK / USA

4.   INSEAD – France / Singapore / UAE

5.   University of Chicago, Booth – USA / UK / Singapore

6.   London Business School – UK

7.   IE Business School – Spain

8.   University of Pennsylvania, Wharton – USA

9.   Duke University, Fuqua – USA

10.  Chinese University of Hong Kong – China

10.  City University Cass – UK

12.  IMD – Switzerland

13.  UC Berkeley Haas / Columbia – USA

14.  Kellogg / WHU-Otto Belsheim School – Germany

15.  Columbia Business School – USA

15.  ESCP Europe – France / UK / Germany / Spain / Italy

You can tell simply by looking above where the EMBA “hot spots” are—the USA, UK, China, Singapore, Paris, France, and Spain—or you can take a look at the FT‘s interactive map: Hot spots: the most popular cities in the world for Executive MBAs.

For an analysis on how the rankings were determined, check out “The ranking decoded.”

For an explanation on the challenges business schools face with this executive degree, see the lead article in the report, “Business schools face EMBA challenge.” (Just to give you clue—it has something to do with the economy and companies becoming less than willing to shell out $100,000+ in sponsorship funds. Surprise, surprise.)

Yet challenges aside, many EMBA programs (especially those in countries that have been, until recently, underserved by business schools) are seeing an increase in enrollment. For more on EMBA success, read “Rising demand: executive MBA sector shows healthy growth.”

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Of course, each school will attribute its recent drop in selectivity to different causes. Michigan Ross, for example, opened a new building which allows for a larger class, thus allowing the adcoms to accept more students this year than in the past.

University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, the school that reported the greatest selectivity decrease among the top 30, attributes its drop to “better marketing.” The school also increased its class size by 22% this year.

Randall Sawyer, assistant dean of admissions, financial aid, and inclusion at Cornell’s Johnson School, states that the program’s decrease in selectivity is due to the increase in the quality of applicants. “Candidates are getting smarter about where they apply,” he says, “giving admissions committees fewer but better choices.”

Some programs, on the other hand, are bucking the drop-in-selectivity trend. While some schools are expanding their class size, some are decreasing it. Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Management is one such example of a program that decreased its class size; 38% of applicants were admitted in 2005, but only 20% in 2010.

Other schools that have reported higher selectivity or no changes include Chicago Booth, Harvard Business School, Notre Dame Mendoza, and Northwestern Kellogg.

And of course this article reflects last year’s application stats. This year both Cornell and Ross happily report that their first round application volume has headed north in comparison to last year’s round 1.

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If you’re considering applying to any of these schools (or any schools in our forthcoming chats), then these sessions are must-attend events. Of course, if you do miss out on a live Q&A session, or if you simply wish to review what you’ve heard, then these Q&A transcripts and audio clips will become your new go-to guides. Each one provides indispensible information that will help you get better acquainted with your target programs, and ultimately demonstrate fit with them.

Here’s a sampling of what’s been going on so far:

UC Berkeley Haas Q&A with Sephanie Fujii

Linda Abraham: Okay. Stephanie, Scott asks, “How does the admissions team view layoffs in regards to a candidate’s application? Is it something that needs to be addressed or is it understood that layoffs are often out of the hands of the candidate?

Stephanie Fujii: Oh, certainly. I think especially given the past couple of years, we’ve definitely seen that. You know, it’s something that if it happens, certainly tell us. I think as a general rule for our application — don’t leave any questions unanswered because we will make up answers and we can be quite creative in it and it won’t always be in the applicant’s favor. So just make sure that you are answering any questions that we might have.

With layoffs, we understand — especially in certain sectors who’ve been hit really hard. What we’re interested in is what you have been doing with your time since that layoff. I think especially for people who are thinking about switching careers, are you involved in activities? Have you done things that will really help you move in that direction? But I think honesty, and being upfront about anything that we might have questions about — that’s very important.

Chicago Booth Q&A with Kurt Ahlm and Julie Morton

Linda Abraham:: What is the difference between applying round one versus round two from the admissions committee perspective? I know the answer is apply when you’re ready but what does the round that someone applies in signal to you?

Kurt Ahlm: Sure, to be candid, I mean, our hope is you’re applying, again, when you feel that you’re most ready. So we don’t really extrapolate anything else from it and honestly those rounds are equally competitive. So if you try to put yourself in our shoes to think about what we might be thinking if you apply round one and round two, we’re just trying to pull the best people we possibly can from the entire process and in order to do that, in order to be one of those people you really want to put in your best possible application. So I would say, again, take the time that you need to put your best foot forward and hopefully you’re successful and that’s really the only way I would look at it.

Northwestern Kellogg Q&A with Beth Flye and Carla Edelston

Linda Abraham: When you are evaluating applications, what puts one applicant in the admit pile and others in the rejected or wait-listed pile?

Beth Flye: Wow, big question. You know, honestly, it really comes back to quality. And our approach is very holistic, meaning we’re not anchoring on a certain GMAT score, a certain GPA. We’re not anchoring on a specific number of years of work experience. Really it comes back to looking at all of the criteria, collectively. And you know, the other thing is taking into account what the quality of the overall applicant pool is at that particular point in time. How does round one look? And then we get into round two. What is that pool looking like in comparison to round one? I would say that when we, philosophically speaking, when we do give a decision, one of these three decisions is usually for more than one particular reason. You know, when we admit somebody, it’s for a broad number of reasons, that we think that person is a very high quality candidate. Just as when we typically deny someone, there’s usually more than one thing that was not as up to par on their application as we would have liked to have seen. And then lastly I would say with the wait list in particular, we wait-list for different reasons. Sometimes, we may want to just hold off making a decision because we want to see more of the applicant pool. There may not be anything in particular about that application that is weak. But we may decide that we just need to see more candidates to help us make a final decision. Oftentimes, we will also wait-list someone because we were wanting additional information, whether it’s a new test score, or a grade from a class that they indicated that they were taking. But the one thing I would like to comment about Kellogg’s wait-list is, to be wait-listed is not a negative thing at all, you are still in the running for admission.

UCLA Anderson Q&A with Mae Jennifer Shores and Jessica Luchenta

Linda Abraham: The next question is from Riya. She asked, “What do employers like most about UCLA Anderson graduates?”

Jessica Luchenta: What I would say goes back to your earlier point Linda, that you made about Anderson students known for collegiality. And so I think that Anderson grads are known for being extremely sharp, very well prepared and well educated during their time here. We have a very challenging and rigorous curriculum that prepares them for all the different issues that they face in a business environment. Our students are also incredibly broad in terms of their experience. Because our program is so diverse, all of our students are coming from various academic and professional backgrounds, they really learned well how to work with an incredibly diverse group of people during their two years here. And that translates well into the business and workplace environment after the MBA. So much of what we do here at Anderson is team based, that our graduates fit right in when it comes to team based office environments. And they are known for knowing how to martial resources and get the job done and be successful. But at the same time, maintaining that sense of community and support and working together that is really the hallmark of our student culture.

Mae Jennifer Shores: To add to Jessica’s comment, we see a broader diversity of people coming into the student body each year than you see in a lot of schools. There is not as much of this herd mentality of people coming primarily from a couple of key industries. Because of that, our students were exposed to a huge set of diverse disciplines among their classmates. And the fact is that all of you may tell us that you know what you want to do, coming into an MBA, but very few of you actually know what you want to do. So this exposure actually prepares you for a variety of careers. So when you do shift gears, maybe change careers or focus during the program, you are a little more nimble and able to adapt to some new areas and have exposure to it, rather than having a change that seems quite so radical to the employer.

Like what you see? Subscribe to Accepted.com’s event list to stay current with the latest Q&A sessions and other admissions events!



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This year, Chicago Booth took the cake with the number 1 slot, at least in part, if not entirely, because of its top-ranked career service department. (The $300 million donation by David Booth in 2008 helped the school achieve this goal, something most schools haven’t been able to accomplish in this economy.)

Here are the top ten full-time international MBA programs:

(Click image to enlarge.)

And here are the top ten schools by category:

(Click image to enlarge.)

For more information on how these schools were chosen, check out the Methodology section of The Economist‘s report.

Meanwhile, a Poets & Quants article on The Economist rankings (“The Economist’s Roller Coaster MBA Ranking“) points to the fact that the this year’s rankings are slightly flawed, mainly in that the job/salary data was gathered from the class of 2009, not the latest graduating class of 2010. The 2010 data, which won’t be ready for a few weeks, would have presented a much more current and fair perspective on how b-school graduates are actually doing job/salary-wise, especially since the economy has improved in the last year.

The P&Q article refers to a number of “roller coaster-like” jumps and plummets, including:

• UVA Darden “leapfrogged” 13 spots from last year’s 24th spot to this year’s 11th.
• Columbia moved up 8 spots from 20th to 12th.
• CMU Tepper jumped 22 spots from 33rd to 21st.
• London Business School ranked the third best in the UK, a shock that came to most people, especially given its number 1 placement by The Financial Times. According to The Economist, LBS is ranked lower than the Cranfield School of Management and Henley Business School.

P&Q states that of the five major MBA rankings (U.S. News, Businessweek, Forbes, Financial Times, and The Economist), “the Economist‘s methodology is considered the least credible.”

Not sure what the rankings mean to you? How much should you take them into account when applying to b-school? Download Accepted’s special ranking report now to learn about how the rankings affect you.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Don’t miss out on this exceptional opportunity to interact with Chicago Booth’s new Senior Director of Admissions and Associate Dean of Career Services.

Challenge Everything: Chicago Booth MBA Admissions Q&A with Kurt Ahlm, Senior Director of Admissions and Julie Morton, Associate Dean of Career Services, on Monday, September 13, 2010 at 10:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM GMT.

Register ASAP to reserve your spot.

Top 10 Schools for Consulting:

1. Northwestern Kellogg
2. Harvard Business School
3. Chicago Booth
4. Wharton
5. Michigan Ross
6. Columbia
7. Duke Fuqua
8. MIT Sloan
9. Stanford
10. NYU Stern

Top 3 B-Schools for Consulting in New York

1. HBS
2. Columbia
3. NYU Stern

Top 3 B-Schools for Consulting in Boston

1. HBS
2. MIT Sloan
3. Dartmouth Tuck

Top 3 B-Schools for Consulting in Washington, D.C.

1. UVA Darden
2. Wharton
3. Northwestern Kellogg

Top 3 B-Schools for Consulting in Atlanta

1. Emory Goizueta
2. HBS
3. Duke Fuqua

Top 3 B-Schools for Consulting in Silicon Valley

1. UC Berkeley Haas
2. MIT Sloan
3. Michigan Ross

Note the role of geography in determining top schools in specific regions. Something to keep in mind if you know where you want to live.

Related Accepted.com Resources:

• The Rankings: An Accepted.com Special Report
• The Consultant’s Guide to MBA Admission, an instantly downloadable ebook



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