2011 Full Time U.S. MBA Rankings

 Every year millions of prospective MBA students apply to the top MBA programs with the hope of gaining acceptance into these elite schools. These students use the widely published MBA rankings of several leading publications to determine which schools they should spend their time preparing an MBA application for. The problem is these publications often use different criteria and methodologies in their rankings resulting in sometimes conflicting results and leaving students unsure which are truly the top MBA programs. By doing a meta-analysis consisting of comparing and analyzing the 2010-2011 MBA Rankings of BusinessWeek along with the just released 2011 US News and World Report Rankings and the latest Forbes MBA Rankings, we hope to come to a more accurate conclusion of what the best MBA programs are.

The criteria used by publications to rank MBA programs differs slightly but as whole consist of some mix of the following: the quality and prestige of the faculty; the test scores and qualifications of existing and past students; the number and quality of jobs obtained by recent graduates; and finally the reputation each school has among business leaders, alumni and professional educators.

The MBA programs at the top of the rankings provide state of the art training in such disciplines as finance, marketing, capital markets and management while also maintaining deep connections and ongoing relationships with leading industry firms and C level executives. It's not surprising that most of the top business schools are located near important financial, cultural and industrial centers thus providing their students with the best access and interaction to make contacts in the business world. Below are the top five MBA Programs as listed in the three major MBA Ranking surveys in major publications.

U.S. News and World Report 2011 US MBA Rankings

1. Harvard University

2. Stanford University

3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)

4. Northwestern University (Kellogg)

5.(tie) University of Chicago (Booth)

5.(tie) University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

BusinessWeek 2010-2011 US MBA Rankings (conducted in 2010)

1. University of Chicago (Booth)

2. Harvard University

3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

4. Northwestern University (Kellogg)

5. Stanford University

Forbes 2010 US MBA Rankings (carried over from 2010)

1. Stanford University

2. Dartmouth College (Tuck)

3. Harvard University

4. University of Chicago (Booth)

5. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

Harvard nails the #1 spot overall coming in first in the US News Rankings, second in BusinessWeek's and third in Forbes. Stanford is a close overall #2 garnering the top spot in the Forbes rankings and second in US News. BusinessWeek places it fifth. The University of Chicago (Booth) earns an overall #3 ranking coming in first in Businessweek, fourth in Forbes and tied for fifth with the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton school by U.S. News. The Wharton school is just behind at #4 overall getting 5th place in both Forbes and U.S. News and a third place spot in BusinessWeek. Finally, the #5 MBA program goes to Northwestern University's Kellogg school, with 4th place rankings in both U.S. News and BusinessWeek but just missing the top five on Forbes list.

While attending a top MBA program is a major goal of many in many prospective business students, it is important to keep in mind that the programs at different schools emphasize different disciplines and have different strengths. While some excel at management training and the strategy and people skills that would make for a great corporate manager, other schools are more focused on quantitative, analytical and capital market skills that make for great traders and investment bankers.

It is important to think beforehand what type of program is going to benefit your career development and that contributes the most to your career direction after graduation. Keep in mind the 2011 MBA rankings should be used as general indicators of a school's popularity and respect by top business and educational professionals but they are by no means a finite qualitative measure of how good that particular school would be for you. MBA rankings are but one of several factors that you should use in your MBA program decision-making process.

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