Poets&Quant’s 2024-2025 MBA Ranking: For The First Time Ever, Kellogg Takes First

KELLOGG WINS BIG IN POETS&QUANTS’ 15TH ANNUAL MBA RANKING

That lineup may surprise many because it does not include Wharton or MIT Sloan, two M7 giants of business education that are often ranked in the Top Ten. It is certainly fair to ask why a Wharton or MIT fell below Kellogg, UVA Darden, Dartmouth Tuck, Cornell, and Duke. It’s because the quality of classroom teaching at these other institutions generally exceeds that of schools that often do well in most conventional rankings. Academic research at Wharton and MIT assumes so much importance that these schools are more tolerant of inconsistent teaching quality across their MBA courses.

That is less true at UVA Darden or Dartmouth Tuck, for example. So the actual student experience inevitably suffers to some degree. It’s why Wharton and MIT Sloan failed to rate among the Top Ten schools in any of the key categories measured by the Princeton Review, from the best professors to the best classroom experience. Poets&Quants strongly believes that the overall student experience, especially the quality of teaching and the engagement professors have with their students, should be given more weight than it is accorded by many business schools. Our ranking reflects this bias.

It’s also important to remember that less than 1% of the world’s 16,000 business schools are ranked at all. So any full-time MBA program that can boast of being in the Top 100 is truly exceptional, no matter where the program may rank on this or other lists of the best. Inevitably, programs that rise or fall the most do so because they have either dropped out of a major ranking this year or have been added back in.

HOW POETS&QUANTS RANKS FULL-TIME MBA PROGRAMS

A case in point: The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business fell out of the Financial Times ranking this year because the school could not meet the minimum standards for a 20% response rate from Ross’ alumni base. The upshot: Ross plunged 20 places on the Poets&Quants list to uncharacteristically rank 29th from ninth place a year ago. This rank clearly undervalues Ross, though the school’s disappointing response rate also can be interpreted as a signal of the alumni’s commitment to the school.

Unlike other rankings, the 15th annual Poets&Quants list combines the most influential business school rankings in the world: U.S. News & World Report, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, and for only the second time LinkedIn‘s second MBA ranking, and Princeton Review‘s annual list of the best. The latter two rankings were added last year after The Economist and Forbes decided to abandon their MBA ranking projects.

Instead of merely averaging the five lists, each ranking is separately weighted to account for our view of their credibility. (U.S. News is given a weight of 35%, the Financial Times is at 30%, Businessweek is given a 15% weight, and LinkedIn and Princeton Review are each given 10%. Adding these two latter rankings puts greater weight on two important measures: a longer-term view of career outcomes from LinkedIn and a fuller appreciation of the academic and educational experience of MBA students from the Princeton Review. The greater focus on those metrics helps to decrease rankings dependence on more traditional measures such as admission stats and starting compensation. For example, for the Princeton Review metric, we use the Top Ten MBA programs on ten core category measures: best professors, best classroom experience, best campus environment, best family-friendly campus, best administration, best career prospects, best for consulting, finance, marketing, and management. A separate Poets&Quants ranking on MBA programs outside the U.S. can be seen here.

JUST 19 OF THE TOP 100 RANK IN ALL FIVE OF THE RANKINGS WE TRACK

The highest assurance of quality in an MBA program is achieved by those that make all five lists, a difficult feat, indeed. Some schools decline to participate in rankings that their deans believe would lower their reputations. So they selectively pick and choose rankings to put their programs in the best light. This year, only 19 of the 100 programs on the P&Q list of the best U.S. MBAs earned ranks across all five lists. Some 23 schools, in fact, were only ranked by one of the five which makes their results less authoritative.

In truth, none of these rankings capture the true essence of the academic experience delivered in an MBA program. A school’s ups and downs may have more to do with the career choices of its graduates than it is a reflection of the caliber of an MBA program. Merging them all together provides a clearer picture of each program’s true place in the pecking order of business education. For applicants, it is also a way to see at a single glance how each program currently places on all five individual rankings in addition to whether a program has gone down or up in the past year.

P&Q's Top Ten MBA Programs Of 2024-2025

For the first time in the 15 years that Poets&Quants has ranked full-time MBA programs, Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management is No. 1

Source: Poets&Quants analysisGet the dataCreated with Datawrapper

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF AN MBA RANKING

As is often the case in MBA rankings, there were some big moves, up and down the list. This year 24 full-time MBA programs experienced double-digit gains or falls on the list. The single biggest ranking increase was gained by Hult International Business School which has multiple campuses, including in Boston and San Francisco (see below). Its full-time MBA program surged 35 places to rank 57th from 92nd, the result of landing on the Financial Times‘ ranking after a long absence. The FT recognized Hult as the 40th best MBA program in the U.S. while Businessweek ranked it 67th.

After falling out of the FT ranking in 2023 when it failed to muster enough responses to the newspaper’s surveys from alumni, Wharton found its way back in this year. The result: the school’s MBA program climbed 19 places to rank 12th. While that rank undervalues the Wharton MBA, it’s a vast improvement from last year’s dismal showing of 31st place caused by the loss of its FT ranking.

In all, 11 programs advanced in double-digits, with large gains by the University of Wisconsin’s Business School, up 18 spots to rank 35th best, and Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, up 16 places to finish 44th. Impressive gains also were racked up by the business schools at the University of Kansas, up 15 places to rank 72nd, and the University of Miami, which advanced 14 spots to finish 59th.

Another 13 MBA programs experienced double-digit falls in the ranking (see table below). The full-time MBA program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst plunged the most, falling 25 places to rank 81st from 56th a year earlier.

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HOW KELLOGG BESTED STANFORD FOR TOP HONORS

More than almost any other business school, Kellogg had a great rankings year. The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, and The Princeton Review all played major roles in the school's ability to nudge aside Stanford. On the FT list, Kellogg gained three places to rank third; on Businessweek, it rose four spots to also rank third; and in top ten categories of The Princeton Review ranking, Kellogg ranked second behind only Darden after not ranking at all a year earlier. It also helped that Stanford was severely handicapped in our composite ranking by its dismal 15th place finish in the Financial Times ranking due to a number of declines in key FT metrics.

Kellogg's ascendance is not surprising. Under legendary Dean Don Jacobs in the 1980s, the school was among the first to pioneer a team-based approach to learning business. At the time, it was so novel that a rival dean told Jacobs that at his school--MIT Sloan--that would be considered cheating. Team-based learning is now commonplace in every MBA program, though it is still at the center of the Kellogg experience.

"Group work is still the predominant feature of being at Kellogg," explains Greg Hanifee, associate dean for degree programs and operations at Kellogg. "With the exception of independent study, every course is structured around a team. We now drill it down lower than our sections of 70 students each. We create pods of six to seven students and it is a chance for students to get to know each other at an intimate level. There is camaraderie and competition but everyone understands that the team matters more than the individual. I have been at Kellogg for 11 years and students really come to Kellogg for that group experience in the classroom, experiential learning, global travel and this idea that the community is paramount. Students learn that they can do great things if they rely on each other.

DOWN TO EARTH. AUTHENTIC. KIND. WORDS THAT DESCRIBE KELLOGG MBAS

MBA students at Kellogg invariably describe their classmates as "nice," "kind," "down-to-earth," "authentic," and "curious." They are known for their supportive and collaborative nature. Explains Henry Long, a first-year MBA at Kellogg, "People talk about 'Kellogg Nice,' but I think it goes one step further to a genuine kindness and desire to get to know each other. Every time I talk with someone, they recommend another person I should talk to -- and my favorite interactions have involved meeting someone and realizing each of us have been told 20+ times about each other!"

That strong sense of community doesn't only apply to students on campus. It also extends to the school's alumni base. "Kellogg alumni are amazingly generous with their time, advice, and friendship," says first-year MBA Mallory Kirby, a UPenn undergrad who worked at the Advisory Board in Washington, D.C., as director of health plan research. "Kellogg doesn’t just talk about community, but goes out of their way to foster that inclusive environment before you even set foot on campus."

And while Kellogg has long been known for its faculty expertise in marketing, the school has been a powerhouse in consulting which typically claims 42% of its graduates, a full 20 percentage points higher than the next industry, financial services. Under Dean Francesca Cornelli, the school has retained its reputation for being among the most market-responsive business schools in the world, with important curriculum innovations in healthcare, private equity, sustainability, and artificial intelligence.

MORE THAN 50 NEW COURSES CREATED IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS

More than 50 new courses have been created in the past five years at Kellogg to address modern-day challenges in business and society, from classes on the interactions between humans and machines to what every MBA needs to know about climate change. Kellogg also linked up again with Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering to launch the MBAi, a joint degree program that puts the focus on AI applications in business, from how to leverage big data to how to use generative AI to segment customers in marketing. This fall Kellogg brought in its fourth MBAi intake of 50 students. This is in addition to the long-standing prestige MMM program with McCormick that provides students with both an MBA and a MS in design innovation, a program that attracts an annual cohort of 70 students.

Eight of every ten Kellogg MBAs in the full-time program now sign up for courses in social impact or sustainability. "It is a tremendous recognition that our faculty are providing amazing content with rigor in this space, and this generation of students is hungry to learn more about how the world will be for them and their children and what role they can play to make things better," says Hanifee.

Coming out of COVID, Kellogg also leaned in heavily to the business of healthcare. The school launched a certificate program in its Executive MBA programs in 2021 and then made that option available to both full-time and part-time MBA students. "So students can take a selection of courses on the business of healthcare and earn the certificate on top of their MBAs," adds Hanifee. "This has gained a lot of interest from our students in a field that is one of the biggest parts of our economy. They are looking at the big questions and issues from biopharma and medical devices and hospital practices."

AN EFFORT TO LURE MORE PE-TYPES TO KELLOGG

Most recently, Kellogg has put in place a new initiative to boost its appeal to applicants with private equity experience. Its high-touch, mentorship driven Advanced Private Equity Experience (APEX) program attracted roughly 20 one- and two-year MBAs to what is a highly selective program that combines rigorous academics with industry mentorship. Kellogg expects the initiative to increase the percentage of MBA grads to go onto lucrative careers in private equity. Last year, just under 10% landed PE jobs. The program boasts an accelerated finance curriculum with advanced courses, including the Private Equity Deep Dive which is very popular among APEX students. The program also features real-world projects and case studies that look at why real deals are made – or not made. Now in its second year, the program is led by Erik Brown, Kellogg MBA ‘06, founder of Red Cedar Capital with more than 20 years of experience in private equity and venture capital.

All of these innovations are girded by some big money from donors. Most notably, the Zell Family Foundation last year gifted Kellogg $25 million to endow the existing Zell Fellows Program in perpetuity. Founded by the late real estate investor and entrepreneur Sam Zell, the foundation gift supports students who are keen to start a new venture or acquire an existing one. “The program focuses on the entrepreneurial spirit at the school,” explains Hanifee. “It’s to inspire an entrepreneurial mindset in leaders, not just business and ideas. The Fellowship program has experiential elements in it and a trip to Israel as conditions allow to meet with leaders in Tel Aviv and experience that ecosystem as well.”

UVA DARDEN ACHIEVES ITS HIGHEST P&Q RANK: FIFTH PLACE

The other big news in this year’s Top Ten is at UVA Darden, which for the second year in a row is the highest ranked public university MBA. Darden moved up three places this year to rank fifth. When Scott Beardsley left McKinsey & Co. as a senior partner to become dean of Darden in 2015, the school’s flagship MBA program ranked tenth. During his timeframe as dean, starting MBA pay and signing bonuses for Darden grads have risen to $199,247 in 2013, the latest year for which figures are available, from $147,250 in 2015, a more than 35% increase in eight years.

Its ranking momentum can be attributed to significantly improved performance on the Bloomberg Businessweek lists, which in the past two years has Darden in the Top Five in the U.S., and the inclusion by Poets&Quants of The Princeton Review rankings, which give greater prominence to the quality of faculty teaching and the student experience overall, attributes that Darden has excelled in over many years. Darden also moved up four spots to tenth place in U.S. News‘ ranking this year, matching its highest rank ever achieved in 2016 on that list. Darden’s excellence in providing an exceptional student experience in a collaborative culture with highly engaged and supportive faculty,  is not new. When The Economist ranked MBA programs, Darden had been ranked first for having the best business education experience in the U.S. for 10 years in a row.

At Darden, the story is always the faculty who are not only masters in the classroom but just as importantly deeply connect with students. Decades of MBA student surveys show again and again that the school can legitimately claim that it has the best MBA teaching faculty in the world. Brianna Huff, a second-year MBA student, speaks of the “unwavering commitment of faculty to ensuring student success – within the classroom and beyond.”The faculty’s commitment to our success was evident in their approach to challenging us,” she says.  “They didn’t just spoon-feed information; instead, they encouraged us to think critically, pushing us to develop our problem-solving skills and analytical thinking. Yet, at the same time, they provided the necessary support and guidance to ensure that we were equipped to rise to these challenges.”

A TRANFORMATIVE TIME FOR UVA DARDEN

The school’s leadership has done an exceptional job of delivering for students above and beyond the school’s long-time differentiation for exceptional case study teaching. Beardsley was honored as P&Q’s Dean of the Year in 2020, while admissions chief Dawna Clark won P&Q’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in Admissions this year. Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Darden’s senior associate dean for professional degree programs, is not only a powerhouse of intellectual energy; she has even officiated a wedding for former students.

Beardsley, who arrived at Darden in 2015 after more than a quarter of a century at McKinsey,  has had a truly transformative impact on the school that will last long after he departs. For one thing, the look and feel of Darden’s grounds have been altered forever with the addition of The Forum, a $130 million hotel and gathering space with an expansive arboretum and gardens, as well as the recent groundbreaking for a $150 million student living project with a major renovation of the school’s faculty office building. That project alone will allow Darden to offer a residential MBA experience akin to Harvard or Dartmouth Tuck, accommodating 80% of first year MBAs when it opens in 2027.

The dean has raised more than $600 million in support of these and other major changes that range from the recent launch of the LaCross Institute for Ethical AI to a major expansion of the faculty from 75 members in 2015 to 99 today. Darden also has launched a healthcare initiative this year to appeal to students who want to work in that growing field. All of this is in addition to his earlier expansion of the school’s presence in Washington, D.C., metro area in a 40,000 square-foot space with classrooms, meeting facilities, office and academic space.

The improvements, along with innovative admission changes, more scholarship funding and new degree programs in business analytics and a part-time MBA in D.C., have helped to give the school a significant boost in rankings. It is little wonder why Darden has achieved its highest rank ever in the Poets&Quants survey this year.

OUR FIXATION WITH RANKINGS

Ultimately, of course, our fixation with rankings obscures the most basic truths about these controversial lists. They reward exclusivity at the expense of inclusivity. They allow schools to premium price education and charge outsized tuition rates. And they lead candidates to believe that the luster of the business school they attend, based largely on a ranking, will not only define their place in the world but also determine their professional success and happiness. That Top Ten program, they think, would bestow some kind of magic on their resumes.

Yet, there are many outstanding MBA programs that allow a graduate to gain the skills and tools necessary to access a successful, fulfilling and meaningful professional career. In fact, many of the less selective programs ranked 50 to 100 and above might well be a better fit than the schools that crowd the top of this or any other ranking. As New York Times columnist Frank Bruni rightly points out, “where you go is not who you’ll be.” So as you consume this or any other ranking, do so with a very big grain of salt.

P&Q's No. 1 MBA Ranking Winners From 2010 To 2024

Harvard Business School's MBA program has captured first place more than any other U.S. school, though HBS hasn't won top honors since 2018

Source: Poets&QuantsGet the dataCreated with Datawrapper