The list was released a week later than planned due to US News receiving an “unprecedented” number of enquiries from business school officials. The reassessment of the data saw a notable change from the original table, with 84 schools having their rank moved by at least one position.
This comes after after a boycott from leading schools such as Yale and Harvard over US News’ law and medicine rankings, which saw a host of colleges refusing to participate.
Kellogg Overtakes Wharton for Second Place Spot
For the first time, Kellogg has been ranked second place on the list, up from third place last year. Wharton, which had been ranked joint first alongside Booth in 2022, has moved down to third.
Both Kellogg and Booth saw a sizeable increase in their average starting salary over last year, (14K and 18K respectively) and a high employment rate. They both, however, have two of the highest acceptance rate of schools in the top 10, admitting over 30% of their applicants.
Meanwhile both Berkeley Haas and Columbia have dropped out of the top 10 and are now tied for eleventh place. Both had a lower employment rate at graduation (77%), which may account for their dropped scores, though these figures both bounced back up to over 90% three months after graduation.
This also comes as a surprise as Columbia was placed first in the Financial Times MBA rankings 2023. Its high FT ranking was partially due to its alumni having the third highest average weighted salary of around $226k, a factor which US News does not take into account.
Dartmouth Tuck Jumps Into Sixth Place
One of the biggest changes to the ranking came from Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business’ five-point leap from eleventh place into sixth.
The school has one of the highest employment rates three months after graduation at 97%.
This jump was largely due to US News’ decision to increase the emphasis on outcome measures and to reduce the weight it places on the schools’ reputation. Job placement now accounts for 30% of the ranking, up from 21%, while the weight on starting pay was pushed up to 20% from 14%.
The increased emphasis on employment rate has sparked criticism, as it does not take into account the fact that graduates who have not yet found a job placement are less likely to respond to the school’s survey.
Harvard and Stanford have been ranked fifth and sixth respectively, yet both have the lowest acceptance rates (14.4% and 8.6%) and the two highest average starting salaries (198K and 196K), leading some to question the validity of the rankings.
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The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
