For the U.S. News Best Business Schools rankings, all 471 MBA programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International were surveyed in fall 2016 and early 2017. A total of 377 responded.
Of those, 131 were ranked because they provided enough of the required data on their full-time MBA program that were needed to calculate the full-time MBA rankings, based on a weighted average of the indicators described below.
Quality Assessment (weighted by 0.40)
• Peer assessment score (0.25): In fall 2016, business school deans and directors of accredited MBA programs were asked to rate programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). Those individuals who did not know enough about a school to evaluate it fairly were asked to mark "don't know." Forty-three percent of those surveyed responded.
A school's score is the average of all the respondents who rated it. Responses of "don't know" counted neither for nor against a school.
• Recruiter assessment score (0.15): In fall 2016, as in previous years, corporate recruiters and company contacts, whose names were supplied by MBA programs previously ranked by U.S. News, were asked to rate all full-time programs on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). Those individuals who did not know enough about a school to evaluate it fairly were asked to mark "don't know."
A school's score is the average of all the respondents who rated it in the three most recent years of survey results. Responses of "don't know" counted neither for nor against a school.
Ipsos Public Affairs collected the assessment data.
Placement Success (weighted by 0.35)
• Mean starting salary and bonus (0.14): This is the average starting salary and bonus of 2016 graduates of a full-time MBA program. Salary figures are based on the number of graduates who reported data. The mean signing bonus is weighted by the proportion of those graduates who reported a bonus, because not everyone who reported a base salary figure reported a signing bonus.
• Employment rates for full-time MBA program graduates: This is the employment rate for 2016 graduates of a full-time MBA program. Those not seeking jobs or for whom no job-seeking information is available are excluded.
If the proportions of graduates for whom no job-seeking information is available and who are not seeking jobs are high, then the information is not used in calculating the rankings. Employment rates at graduation (0.07) and three months after graduation (0.14) are used in the ranking model.
Student Selectivity (weighted by 0.25)
• Mean GMAT and GRE scores (0.1625): This is the average GMAT score and average GRE quantitative and verbal scores of full-time MBA students entering in fall 2016. U.S. News uses both GMAT and GRE scores in the ranking model for MBA programs that reported both scores. Using the GRE scores allows U.S. News to take into account the admissions test scores of the entire entering full-time MBA class.
Scores on the GMAT range from 200 to 800. Only GMAT scores are shown on the ranking table. These GMAT and GRE data are only available via a U.S. News Business School Compass subscription.
• Mean undergraduate GPA (0.075): This is the average undergraduate grade-point average of those students entering the full-time program in fall 2016.
• Acceptance rate (0.0125): This is the percentage of applicants to the full-time program in fall 2016 who were accepted.
Overall Rank
Data were standardized about their means, and standardized scores were weighted, totaled and rescaled so that the top school received 100; others received their percentage of the top score. Graduate business programs were then numerically ranked in descending order based on their scores.
To be included in the full-time MBA rankings, a program had to have 20 or more of its 2016 full-time MBA graduates seeking employment.
For a school to have its employment data considered in the ranking model, at least 50 percent of its 2016 full-time MBA graduates needed to be seeking work.
MBA programs that did not meet either of the above employment criteria are listed as Unranked (see below for an explanation of Unranked).
Specialty Rankings
These rankings, including of executive MBA programs, are based solely on ratings by business school deans and directors of accredited MBA programs from the list of schools surveyed. They were asked to nominate up to 10 programs for excellence in each of the areas listed.
Those schools receiving the most votes in each specialty are numerically ranked in descending order based on the number of nominations they received, as long as the school or program received seven or more nominations in that specialty area. This means that schools ranked at the bottom of each specialty ranking have received at least seven nominations.
Rank Not Published
In graduate business, U.S. News has numerically ranked the top three-fourths of the full-time MBA programs that qualified to be ranked. The bottom quarter of the rank-eligible full-time MBA programs are listed as Rank Not Published.
Rank Not Published means that U.S. News calculated a numerical rank for that program but decided for editorial reasons not to publish it. U.S. News will supply programs listed as Rank Not Published with their numerical ranks if they submit a request following the procedures listed in the Information for School Officials.
Programs marked as Rank Not Published are listed alphabetically.
Unranked
If a program is listed as Unranked, that means that U.S. News did not calculate a numerical rank because the program did not supply enough key statistical data to be numerically ranked. Programs marked as Unranked are listed alphabetically below those marked as Rank Not Published.
School Data
All 471 schools appear in the online directory. The schools provided the data listed in the rankings tables and on school profile pages. If a data point is listed as "N/A," the school did not provide it. |