What Do MBA Rankings Really Measure?

When you’re narrowing down your dream business school, you may be pointed toward MBA rankings. There are many lists identifying the “best” programs, but it’s not always easy to understand what each of them truly measures.

Rankings can reveal a lot about what makes a top MBA program like Rice Business unique. Let’s dive into the methodologies behind major rankings, how to read these rankings effectively and what they can mean for you.

A Quick Guide to MBA Rankings

In your MBA search, you’ll find a number of sites and outlets reporting on a variety of elements from broad topics like overall program to specific lists, like which schools have the most female MBA students. Here’s a sample of what you might find on each website:

• U.S. News & World Report: Overall MBA programs; Best online MBA programs; Best MBA programs for specialties, like entrepreneurship, accounting, management, etc.
• Poets&Quants: Best MBA and undergraduate programs for entrepreneurship; Most influential business schools; Best international MBA programs
• Financial Times: Top 100 business schools in the world, with interactive columns evaluating salary, carbon footprint, diversity, faculty expertise and more
• Bloomberg Businessweek: B-school rankings by compensation, learning, networking, entrepreneurship and diversity; MBA schools ranked by region
• Fortune: Annual MBA program ranking that includes components like acceptance rate, median base salary of new grads, median GMAT and tuition
• Princeton Review: Best Business Schools based on alumni and student surveys; Top graduate entrepreneurship programs (No. 1 spot held by Rice Business for six years)

How Are MBA Programs Ranked?

At first glance, rankings might seem straightforward: the higher the rank, the better the school, right? The truth is that each ranking system uses its own formula, weighing certain factors more heavily than others. 

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For example, rankings from the U.S. News & World Report emphasize school reputation and career outcomes. To do this, they measure peer and recruiter evaluations in a quality assessment (25%), starting salary (20%), salary by profession (10%), employment rates at graduation (7%) and at three months (13%), and evaluation of student selectivity (25%), which includes student GMAT/GRE scores, undergraduate GPA and acceptance rates.

By contrast, The Financial Times takes a more international approach, evaluating components like career progression (i.e. salary increases), professional growth, faculty research and education, international mobility, alumni workforce and various diversity metrics.

And business school aficionado Poets&Quants combines multiple rankings like USNWR, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, LinkedIn and the Princeton Review, aiming to produce a composite view.

Reading Between the Rankings

Rankings can offer helpful benchmarks, but they might not capture the full value of a school’s MBA program. That’s why you should consider the factors that matter most to you and what your long-term goals are as you begin narrowing down your options.

When evaluating rankings alongside your personal goals, be sure to keep in mind that:

• Methodology matters. Each ranking system emphasizes various metrics and focuses on specific priorities, like career progression or diversity.
• Metrics can be narrow. Most lists measure specific quantifiable metrics, which can discount intangible (but critical) factors like campus culture, peer relationships and networking strength.
• Lists change annually. Rankings fluctuate, sometimes due to minor statistical shifts and other economic and geopolitical factors. A slight change in rank may not necessarily reflect a real difference in program quality.

Rankings can offer a ton of insights and key data, but it’s still worth looking past the numbers to understand what drives a school’s reputation and student success. At the end of the day, what matters most is your “fit” with a particular school.

Making the Rankings Work for You

At Rice Business our faculty expertise, career services and engaged alumni network have earned Rice Business consistent recognition across multiple ranking platforms. MBA rankings are valuable guides, but should be one of many tools you use in your decision-making process. 

The right MBA program should align with your personal ambitions, values and learning style, while equipping you with the network and skills to reach your goals. One of the best ways to find your community is by visiting a school. We encourage you to contact a Rice Business recruiter or attend an upcoming event to learn more about our MBA programs.

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