US News 2021 MBA Rankings Are Out - GSB and Wharton are #1, HBS is #6

Question

The US News MBA rankings are early this year! Notable Updates: Stanford and Wharton have shared the first spot (sorry US News but it is lame to have ties - esp for the first place!) Kellogg has done very well for itself moving from spot #6 to share the position #3 with Booth Haas is finally NOT #8, after about 10 years of occupying that spot, it shifted into the 7th position. 60 more years and it will be #1

Foster and US have improved their ranking. Makes sense for Foster and surprising for USC - it had a very aggressive growth, and ability to gain while without a dean is pretty impressive... esp ability to gain on UCLA Anderson which has a pretty stellar career office Tuck, Fuqua, and Ross are sharing the same 12th spot - which is really not helpful in differentiating these schools US News.... really? Owen Vanderbilt also climbed 6 spots to take the 23rd spot - nicely done! Did anyone notice that HBS is sharing spot #6 with MIT? Is US News combining schools in the same city? Kellogg/Booth, HBS/Sloan - are these like geographic rankings for the towns with best drinking spots? If you are interested, here are some predictions we came up with - i only got 1 out of 3

https://gmatclub.com/forum/your-predict ... 17533.html What else do you see? Here are the 2021 rankings just in case. Link https://usnews.com/best-graduate-school ... mode=table BB. See also... Top Gainers/Losers as well as Consistent Performers in US News Rankings us news rankings 2021.png

DisciplinedPrep · Answer

bb  - Thank you very much for sharing this news and highlighting the key findings - a great read.

bb · Answer

Ha ha. Not a very long read but thank you

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Narenn · Answer

Here are top gainers & losers in 2021 rankings as well as a graph displaying consistent progression shown by Foster, USC, and Jones in US News rankings since 2008

Top Gainers/Losers

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Progression of USC Marshall, Foster, & Jones in US News Rankings

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bb · Answer

Interesting! Carlson! That program stands out because it has a fairly low proportion of the international students. Only 19% off the roughly 90 enrolled students in the full-time program. I guess the impact of the immigration policies may have helped besides whatever else they’re doing right....

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easterngod · Answer

Minus HBS I think the rankings are accurate (would be more fair to insert as a tie for 1st or 3rd). Was surprised to see Wharton hold onto #1, but I think it is deserved.

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

Agree with your assessment

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JohnJohnJ · Answer

This is well deserved for Carlson and Kellogg. Unfortunate but true, I thought MIT was always overrated

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sdlife · Answer

Any thoughts on why Tuck hasn't been able to break into Top 10?

bb · Answer

Good question about Tuck - I don't know. It has been a TOP 10 program for a long time - here is a snapshot for the last 13 years (2008 - 2020; note that 2020 was last year per US News).

I feel Tuck is ahead of Stern in terms of recruiting and placements (the part that matters per se) but more things go into the US News rankings...

FinanceMan · Answer

Not like many at GMAT Club care because most are aiming at top 25 schools but being from Oklahoma, it was interesting to see the University of Oklahoma (Price) go from #58 in 2020 rankings to #85 on 2021 rankings! A drop of dang near 30 spots!

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bb · Answer

Thanks for pointing it out. I haven’t had a chance to go below the top 30 yet but that’s a huge move. Painful too. I wish US news provided the background of what caused the change.... Maybe I have not found it yet.

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FinanceMan · Answer

Definitely a painful move. I know that Price is heavily investing in their EMBA in Energy currently but I would not think that would have much bearing on their US News Ranking. I am not sure what would have caused their rankings to drop so much unless US News factors in the negative publicity the University has been receiving lately.

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JohnJohnJ · Answer

The reason why Tuck does not come in the top 10 is because of following reasons 
1. Tuck loses out on points because of the lack of networking opportunities (it is a small class size) 
2. Tuck does not have a PhD program 
3. Tuck is a consulting school (I compare it to Insead) - I think it’s among the best schools for consulting (in some cases H/S/W) 
4. Tuck has not been able to leverage its Ivy brand like Yale

Also, I usually get into debates with BB about a few opinions, I don’t entirely agree with BB that Tuck’s employment is better than Stern. Tuck is definitely the best for consulting. 
But I do feel that Tuck should be in the top 10 and a few in the current top 10 should be thrown out. 
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sdlife · Answer

bb  and  JohnJohnJ  - thank you both! I guess I am trying to understand what changed in the last two years.

John - those factors that you mentioned were always true for Tuck, but as  bb  mentioned it was still consistently ranked in the top 10. What is the one (or mutip\ple) metric that changed? I don't fully know the US news methodology, but except the drop in apps (and consequently high acceptance rate), I don't see anything else that has changed for Tuck in the recent years!

BTW, I am a Tuck admit, so keen on understanding this. Thank you again!

BlueBook · Answer

Why the drop for Harvard and MIT and the rise of Kellogg and Booth?? Also, I'm impressed with Stern climbing into 10th!! Great job for them. All in all, too many ties for me. Remember to also take the rankings with a pinch of salt because marketing and lobbying goes into it as well

JohnJohnJ · Answer

In my opinion the metric did not change for Tuck but it changed for other schools. While I may not be an expert, but I feel that the following factors may have impacted the ranking
1. Other schools did significantly better than their previous years with their employment reports. 
2. Kellogg, Wharton, and Yale have new deans, these schools have shown gender and racial diversity in selecting their dean - in the business world, diversity is highly regarded (Columbia also has a new dean). 
3. The other schools may have had a higher # of research papers published 
Feel free to DM if you have specific questions

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JohnJohnJ · Answer

Something to do with the Boston area schools, economic indicators? Tuck had a great year for consulting (in Boston Area). These rankings ignore the entrepreneurs from Harvard while collecting their survey, employment and teaching quality. Stanford and Harvard are known for creating entrepreneurs, so the #6 for Harvard is not justified

In Chicago, Kellogg and Booth are great schools, traditionally Kellogg has created many more business leaders than Booth, and Booth has had several consulting firm and PE founders (more than Harvard)

In New York, in my opinion - Columbia and Stern have usually been the same, where Columbia gets a lot more sponsored students (the MBB sponsored) for the Ivy label and Stern gets the remaining.

In SF, I just know that salaries are way higher than the average salary anywhere else in the country 
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sdlife · Answer

Ok thanks for sharing your thoughts.

souvik101990 · Answer

FWIW - here is the US News methodology - https://www.usnews.com/education/best-g ... ethodology

Big swings would most likely relate to virality! Wharton lost their dean to Marshall but kept their position and Marshall went up. It seems peer review is a pretty big indicator of the rankings!

Research papers are not a part of the USN methodology afaik. This was a pretty clickbaity attempt

I have a feeling a certain business school news and speculation website (think buzzfeed for MBA) had some input for USN auditors

US News 2021 MBA Rankings Are Out - GSB and Wharton are #1, HBS is #6

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