While I don’t like to encourage clients to focus too heavily on rankings when they’re making their MBA program selections, I know those headed for b-school really can’t help themselves.

With that in mind, check out U.S. News‘s 2013 Best Graduate Schools Rankings, released today, and the Financial Times‘ seventh annual listing of the world’s top online MBA programs, also announced this week.

I’m pleased to see that my alma mater, Kellogg School of Management, has taken the number-one spot for part-time MBA programs, and is tied for fourth place in the full-time MBA rankings.

Do you see any surprises on these lists? How much weight do you place on rankings as part of your school selection process? Leave a comment below to let us know.

Are you banking on the belief that earning an MBA is the golden ticket for contentment? You may want to assess the satisfaction index of b-school grads that have gone before you, suggests a recent Forbes.com article on the most satisfied business school graduates.

Harvard Business School does top Forbes’s rankings when it comes to return on investment, but apparently, money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness—overall satisfaction with their MBA degrees ranks 20^th out of 50 U.S. b-schools, and their happiness level at their current jobs is ranked 31st. So just how does Forbes measure satisfaction?

Forbes reached out to 16,000 alumni that graduated in 2006 from more than 100 schools around the world to gauge satisfaction. We heard back from nearly 5,000 of them. We looked at satisfaction in three areas: MBA education, current job and preparedness relative to other MBA alumni. We averaged the three satisfaction ratings to put together our list of the most satisfied b-school grads.

Turns out, the most satisfied grads come from Stanford Graduate School of Business, which ranked in the top five among U.S. schools in all three areas of satisfaction in which alumni were surveyed, Forbes.com states. Stanford MBAs also ranked as the most satisfied two years ago when alumni were last surveyed. Stanford ranked second this year in the magazine’s ROI ranking.

Getting into über competitive Stanford GSB may kick-start the good feelings— 6,618 applicants competed for just 397 spots in the Class of 2013, Forbes.com reports. The second most satisfied b-school alumni are at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, and MIT Sloan School of Management, Chicago Booth School of Business, and Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business round out the top five.

Forbes separated out business schools located outside the U.S., so to learn who are the most satisfied MBA graduates abroad, follow this link back to the complete story.

The annual report of the world’s top 200 business schools according to MBA employers came out Monday on www.topmba.com. The QS Global 200 Business Schools Report provides an alternative to traditional MBA rankings by highlighting the value of MBA programs around the world according to the qualification’s end consumer—the MBA employer. Over 2,000 responses were received from 42 countries, making this the largest survey of its kind.

MBA employers were asked to identify the business schools from which they prefer to recruit. Respondents also identified business schools they deem to produce excellent hires in ten areas of elective specialization: finance; strategy; marketing; entrepreneurship; corporate social responsibility; information management; innovation and international management.

If you’re considering pursuing an MBA, the QS Global 200 Business Schools Report can help in your research process by identifying which business schools are meeting the needs of international employers and revealing some of the newer programs that are gaining in reputation.

Top Three Business Schools, by Region

 North America

1. Harvard Business School
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business
3. Northwestern Kellogg School of Management

Latin America

1. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile)
2. Business School Sao Paulo (Brazil)
3. Fundacao Getulio Vargas (Brazil)

Europe

1. INSEAD
2. London Business School
3. Saïd Business School (University of Oxford)

Middle East and Africa

1. University of Cape Town (South Africa)
2. American University in Cairo (Egypt)
3. University of Stellenbosch (South Africa)

Asia-Pacific

1. INSEAD-Singapore
2. IIM Ahmedabad (India)
3. Melbourne Business School (Australia)

Top Three Business Schools, by Specialization

Finance

1. Wharton School
2. Chicago Booth School of Business
3. London Business School

International Management

1. INSEAD
2. Harvard Business School
3. Thunderbird School of Management

Marketing

1. Kellogg School of Management
2. Wharton School
3. Harvard Business School

Entrepreneurship

1. Harvard Business School
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business
3. Wharton School

Operations Management

1. MIT Sloan School of Management
2. Harvard Business School
3. Wharton School

Information Management

1. MIT Sloan School of Management
2. Harvard Business School
3. Wharton School

Strategy

1. Harvard Business School
2. Wharton School
3. INSEAD

Leadership

1. Harvard Business School
2. Wharton School
3. INSEAD

Corporate Social Responsibility

1. Harvard Business School
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business
3. INSEAD

Innovation

1. MIT Sloan School of Management
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business
3. Harvard Business School

Nunzio Quacquarelli, managing director of QS says, “Despite the global economic turbulence, the report found record numbers of companies turning towards hiring MBAs. The qualification’s international appeal is becoming increasingly relevant in today’s globally interconnected economy.”

Full results by region and specialization on www.topmba.com.

An uncertain job market and increased reluctance to take on enormous amounts of student loan debt are just two of the reasons cited by Bloomberg Businessweek for the recent surge in interest in part-time and executive MBA programs. According to a Graduate Management Admission Council application trends survey published this summer, more than 40 percent of part-time and executive programs have seen an increase, while applications to full-time programs have dipped at more than two-thirds of responding schools.

For the 2011 Best Part-Time MBA and Best EMBA rankings, Bloomberg Businessweek surveyed 10,000-plus recent graduates from both types of programs at more than 100 B-schools. Among the part-timers, 58 percent identified themselves as either a job changer or a career switcher, which means access to the MBA career office is in especially high demand.

Top Five Part-Time MBA Programs

1. Elon University’s Love School of Business
2. UCLA Anderson School of Management
3. Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business
4. University of Nevada, Reno
5. UC Berkeley Haas School of Business

Top Five Executive MBA Programs

1. Chicago Booth School of  Business
2. Columbia Business School
3. Kellogg School of Management
4. IE Business School
5. UCLA Anderson School of Management

Only 19 percent of respondents to this year’s EMBA survey were completely funded by their employers, down from 32 percent in 2007, says Bloomberg Businessweek. And 42 percent paid their entire tuition on their own, vs. 28 percent four years ago. According to the survey, prospective EMBAs want more than just strong core business teachings; they want access to classes in areas such as entrepreneurship, career advancement, and leadership.

Avid rankings watchers will no doubt notice that this latest EMBA ranking features a shakeup at the very top. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business has captured the No. 1 spot for the first time since the ranking began 20 years ago, ousting Chicago-area rival Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, which until now was the only No. 1 school in the ranking’s history.

Click through the links above to read the complete rankings for each category. To learn what criteria Bloomberg Businessweek uses to rank the schools, read this explainer.

The recently released 2011-2012 Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey, the only MBA ranking focused on social and environmental impact, has named the Stanford Graduate School of Business number one in the United States, followed by the University of Notre Dame and Yale School of Management.

Conducted by the Aspen Institute, this independent, biennial survey reflects how academic institutions prepare students to meet the business challenges of tomorrow. Rankings are based on required and elective courses addressing social and environmental impact, and published on relevant topics. For prospective students interested in a more “green” MBA, the results are particularly helpful in illuminating which programs most closely align with their goals and interests.

Stanford GSB leads the pack due to the array of courses the school offers with social and environmental content, as well as classes that directly examine the role mainstream business can play in improving society, the survey authors noted. In addition, Stanford receives high marks for creating an environment that allows faculty to explore these topics in their research, they said.

The Top Ten US MBA Programs

1. Stanford Graduate School of Business
2. Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business
3. Yale School of Management
4. Kellogg School of Management
5. UM Ross School of Business
6. Cornell’s Johnson School
7. UNC Kenan-Flagler School of Business
8. UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business
9. GWU School of Business
10. Columbia Business School

This cycle’s survey of 149 schools on six continents reveals there has been a 38 percent increase in the number of required courses in finance departments that include social, ethical or environmental content. Additionally, the percentage of surveyed schools that require students to take a course on business and society issues has increased dramatically–from 34 percent in 2001 to 79 percent in 2011.

“The financial crisis caused schools to be more introspective about what they are teaching,” Judith Samuelson, Aspen’s director of business and society, says in this interview. “They were criticized for being part of the problem, and not part of the solution. And that has created an environment where faculty can innovate and make change.”

Paul Rowland, executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, recently told U.S. News and World Report that over the next decade, MBA programs will increasingly offer courses that consider the social, environmental, and financial impact of every business decision, a.k.a. the “triple bottom line.”

At the moment, though, Samuelson says faculty research continues to be mostly theoretical, and often fails to address challenges facing business. “While I understand the inclination of faculty to focus on theoretical issues, it’s important for leadership at top business schools to unleash faculty talents on problems they know business needs to resolve.”

For more information on the Beyond Grey Pinstripes initiative, including scoring methodology and ratings per subject area, follow this link.