Chicago Booth Tops The Economist MBA Rankings Again

chicago booth tops economist rankingsFor the fifth time in six years, the Chicago Booth School of Business takes the top spot in The Economist’s annual ranking of the best business schools in the world.

Despite Booth’s reputation for finance and “super quants”, The Economist finds it to be a well-rounded MBA program, with graduates gushing about finding nearly guaranteed employment in the widest range of industries, and students believing the Chicago Booth career services, faculty, and facilities were top-notch.

Although the rankings are global, 14 of the top 20 schools in the 2015 ranking are located in the U.S. Here’s a look at this year’s Top Ten:

  1. Chicago Booth School of Business
  2. UV Darden School of Business
  3. Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business
  4. Harvard Business School
  5. HEC Paris
  6. UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
  7. Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
  8. INSEAD
  9. UCLA Anderson School of Management
  10. The Wharton School

There were some notable shifts from last year’s ranking, which placed Kellogg at 14, INSEAD at 18, and UCLA Anderson at 13. Another surprise was Spain’s IESE, which took the 5th spot in 2014 but came in at 14 this year. IE Business School, also in Spain, made great strides over last year’s ranking, coming in at 36 in 2014 and 17th in 2015.

The Economist wants to find out how effective the MBA degree is at opening up new professional opportunities, and says its ranking is based on a mix of hard data and subjective marks given by the students.

“Each year we ask students why they decided to take an MBA. Our ranking weights data according to what they say is important. The four categories covered are: opening new career opportunities (35% weighting), personal development and educational experience (35%), increasing salary (20%) and the potential to network (10%),” the magazine explains.

While we don’t like to encourage clients to focus too heavily on rankings when they’re making their MBA program selections, we also know those headed for b-school really can’t help themselves. But placing too heavy an emphasis on rankings can actually become a distraction for some applicants, so be sure to consider multiple factors when making your final school selection.

You may also be interested in:

Columbia’s Dean Hubbard on MBA Rankings
Rethinking MBA Rankings
The Truth Behind 3 Common MBA Rankings Myths

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