Consensus Ranking: What are the Top 20 U.S. Programs?

Question

Hi all,

So I've read countless threads, articles, rankings, even GMATClub's "tiers" of MBA school classifications (i.e. ultra elite, elite, trans-elite, etc) and though I generally have an idea as to the higher-tiered MBA schools in the U.S., I hear a lot from people talking about their goals being a "Top 20 U.S. MBA Program". I'm not sure if there's a consensus as to which schools these are (independent of year-to-year-fluctuations), but if people generally have a consensus view of what these Top 20 U.S. programs are, I'd love to hear them from you guys (with a rough ranking of tiers if possible).

Here's what my "view" of what schools comprise the list of Top 20 U.S. MBA Programs:

(in no order):

1. UPenn - Wharton
2. Harvard
3. Stanford
4. Chicago - Booth
5. Columbia
6. MIT - Sloan
7. NYU - Stern
8. UC Berkeley - Haas
9. Dartmouth - Tuck
10. Duke - Fuqua
11. Northwestern - Kellogg
12. UCLA - Anderson
13. Michigan - Ross
14. Yale SOM
15. Virginia - Darden
16. Cornell - Johnson
17. Carnegie Mellon - Tepper
18. Emory - Goizueta
19. ...?
20. ...?

Do I have the gist of it? How do your lists look? Any change/additions/subtractions you'd make to my list? How would you segregate the different 'tiers' within the Top 20? How about Top 30? Is there a significant drop-off from schools in the Top 20 to those in the 21-30 range? Or 31-40?

I'm just trying to learn as much as possible about the U.S. MBA school landscape, and rankings are so tough to follow to get a consensus ranking.

Thanks all!

osbornecox · Answer

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mba20thirteen · Answer

I think UNC should fill one of those #19 or #20 spots... possibly #18 over Emory...

merkin · Answer

I might be partial, but I'll stick to US News, as they are the only rankings incorporating prestige, which like it or not, matters. Therefore, I'll plug mccombs in at 16, and certainly in the top 20. The best is where the best recruit and, whether you're looking for investment banks, microsoft, or mckinsey, they all recruit at McCombs.

I really think of ranking in tiers though. Top 5, then the next 15...then the rest. Ultimately though, a lot of what makes best is where you want to end up post-grad.

If you're not familiar kdub, here is the link to the most recent rankings.  https://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/rankings

Jeanette · Answer

if comparing different mostly-regional schools against each other in different regions, it does make sense to look at the degree of dominance those regional schools have in their respective region once looking outside the very top schools in addition to how big a market those regions are (dominating Wyoming isn't exactly an achievement). Emory is certainly a good school, but does it really exercise the dominance in Atlanta that Mccombs does in Dallas or Houston? I can't say for sure, but I doubt it.

That's the trick, of course, a real ranking will start to scale based on what's important, and that varies based on the "quality" (for lack of a better word) of the school. HBS, Wharton, Stanford, etc. all should be ranked against each other on how well they get the very top jobs. But to rank a 75thish school based on that would be stupid (if one person gets an M/B/B spot out of 400 students at one school and none do from another school, does that really make the first better?).

Moss · Answer

Kellogg out of the top 10? I don't think so!

Consensus Ranking: What are the Top 20 U.S. Programs?

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