Top 50 US News MBA Rankings over 12 Years (2008 - 2019)

Interesting comments on MBA rankings by users.

• The more I see different ranking lists with wild fluctuations in some schools' positioning, the more I realize that you cannot live and die by a school rank. Just as the school needs to look at more than just your GMAT score when deciding whether or not to consider taking you in, you as an applicant have got to look at the total package and not just the position on a list. - RiaLucia
  
  
  
• The reason you get an MBA is to get a job in the mid/upper management and it is impossible for a school to teach you specifics of what you will need - they can only challenge your comfort zone, develop your leadership abilities, emphasize team work, and demonstrate that you are good at prioritizing and time management. Specialization rankings are a farce by en large and you will see that many of them make zero sense. Do your own research but I would guess any top 20 or top 50 MBA will satisfy your needs. Keep in mind that applications are very competitive and so are jobs in some of the fancier industries such as Consulting, PE, VC, etc. - bb
  
  
  
• All these rankings are pretty debatable. I would put this way:
  1 - Harvard - no question about it, will open doors anywhere in the world.
  2 - Stanford - (I personally would attend Stanford rather than Harvard).
  3 - Wharton - Most of the class was dinged by H/S.
  4,5,6 - MIT / Kellogg / Chicago - not in any particular order, depends much on your future career goals.
  7 - Columbia - the "M7".
  8 - Tuck
  9 - Berkeley
  10 - [Choose one] - MBAUncle
  
  
  
• (I would love to know how INSEAD, LBS and IMD stand for in comparison with H/S and M7 or M9. What are your thoughts?) I've been thinking about it recently. My thoughts:
  Harvard / Stanford
  Wharton / LBS / CBS / MIT / Booth / Kellogg
  Haas / Tuck / Fuqua / INSEAD / Ross / Stern
  Yale / IESE / Judge / Said / IMD / Anderson / Darden / Johnson / HEC Paris / IE ...
  
  
  
• It's from unemployed MBA graduate. I may sound bitter but potential students must beware of the ranking system.my MBA school always ranked high in ASEAN region under FT and stated 98% employed within 3 month of graduation. Yes our formal (convocation) is in august, but our courses completion is on december every year. That's 11 months unemployment!! i prefer the economist survey method than FT. FT just took the data the schools provided from school website (or what I was told so) but economist really sent their surveys to the students and alumni. My school decided not to publish the economist rank since 201x because the students and our alumni put a very low ranking during their recent survey. I suggest choose schools that rank consistently across the economist and FT. whichever schools that are high in FT, and low or disappear in the economist are suspects. My careers service focuses on "helping" the employers by profiling the students resume, meaning that you can "dream" on careers switch, but they will only "promote" certain individuals they like to the employers. This is as value add services to the employer (not for the students). Student fees are only to pay for their career "tuition" fee, not to help students to find jobs (really new jargon to me). Still unemployed for 4 months and was told by the career services that they will help to find out why I am so "unsuccessful". cheers (MBA graduate from the best business school in ASEAN). - unemployedmba123
  
  
  
• It's funny, though, to see how all of us tend to make a serf-serving argument about the "Top X" of our desired school. I saw a very funny - and spot-on - definition on Business Week forum:
  "The label M7 is a far less official term than "ivy league".
  The ivy league itself is an athletic conference in which members set high standards for student athletes. People have come to associate it with academics.
  The forum legend is that "M7" was coined by a Columbia dean who referred to a meeting of top business schools. It is a challenge to find any business school that uses that term in their admissions materials or websites (contrast this with the use of the 'ivy league' name).
  To be blunt, people use these terms to associate their schools with better ranked schools. How often do you hear HBS bragging about being in the M7? Or Yale reminding people it's in the Ivy League?
  
  Here's a quick guide:
  If someone describes their school as the top ranked school, they go to HBS or Stanford
  If someone says they go to a "Top 3" school, they go to Wharton
  If someone says they go to a "Top 5" school, its either Chicago, Kellogg, or MIT Sloan
  If someone says they're in the "M7", they go to Columbia
  If someone says "Top 10", they mean Tuck, Ross, Haas, or <insert whatever school you insist belongs in the top ten, thus proving my point".
  
  My opinion? It doesn't really matter. As long as it is a "brand-name" - and the list is known (it's the "Top 10 Plus" (about 15-16, actually) - you can get anywhere you want. It's all up to you, your ambition and ability to (net)work hard. - AgeDoesntMatter