Author: Zornitsa Licheva

MBA rankings can be an incredibly valuable tool, offering you a glimpse into the world of top-tier business schools globally. Among the most prominent of these rankings are the annual Financial Times (FT) and US News MBA rankings. 

For aspiring MBA candidates, these publications serve as a stepping stone, providing a list of institutions renowned for their academic rigor, faculty expertise, and post-graduation outcomes. Yet, behind the neat and glossy look of MBA rankings lies an even more nuanced and diverse landscape of MBA programs. 

Let’s look into the background of business school rankings, analyze what is still missing, and explore what the future of rankings might look like.

Understanding the Landscape of MBA Rankings

In 2023, the Financial Times marked a quarter century since the creation of its MBA ranking process. “The FT launched its ranking process in 1998. The only other rankings that existed at the time – by US News & World Report and BusinessWeek – were limited to US business schools,” former FT business education editor Della Bradshaw, who actually launched the rankings, says. 

Even from the start, there was a focus in the methodology on international and career-related factors, as well as on gender diversity among MBA students and faculty. These main pillars continue to be part of the FT MBA ranking’s methodology today. It takes into account 21 criteria in total, giving the most weight to post-graduation income, salary increase, and value for money. Sustainability is also among the essential factors that have found their way into the ranking.

What Does the Latest FT Ranking Show?

In the 2024 edition of the FT MBA ranking released recently, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has once again secured its #1 place. Despite challenging economic conditions globally, Wharton alumni reported the third-highest average weighted salaries, underscoring the enduring value of the program. However, there’s a noticeable trend towards flexible and online MBA alternatives in a dynamic job market.

The latest FT MBA ranking also sheds light on key trends in business education, highlighting gender diversity challenges. Schools such as Wharton, ESCP Business School, and Audencia Business School in France stand out for achieving gender parity among their students. Additionally, there’s a growing focus on environmental sustainability, with SDA Bocconi in Italy leading the efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Why Business School Rankings are Not Perfect

Although measuring business school progress in terms of diversity and sustainability is incredibly valuable, the problem is that MBA rankings are not a one-size-fits-all tool. Unless you approach them with a healthy dose of critical thinking, they can even be misleading. 

Someone’s #1 school may not be your #1 school at all.

In recent years, there has been what many refer to as an “unranking movement” – increased concerns about the objectivity and relevance of contemporary rankings. In 2022, The Economist discontinued the publication of its MBA ranking, citing “commercial” reasons for the decision. There have also been cases of business schools opting to skip their participation in a particular edition (especially during and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic).

Global educational services company, Kaplan, and leading test prep provider, Manhattan Prep, also shed light on the topic with their annual survey of business school admissions officers published in 2023. The test prep companies found that 37% of surveyed admissions officers in the US believe that “business school rankings have lost some of their prestige over the last couple of years”. 

Among comments shared by respondents in the survey, one in particular stands out: “We should be focusing on fit, not prestige. What program is going to give the student the most positive experience and highest return on investment. We should be in the business of informing, not competing.”

Shifting The Paradigm With Personalization

Is there an alternative to standard MBA rankings then? What could the future look like for people like you who may be looking not just for a top-ranked program, but for the right program fit? Curious about finding answers to these questions, global MBA matching and connection platform Unimy launched the 360° MBA Ranking in December 2023. The new tool offers several benefits compared to other rankings. 

The main idea behind it is that it uses the latest MBA data from two of the most prominent publications – the Financial Times and US News rankings, and presents it in a fully personalized format. 

Let’s say you’re most interested in business schools that score high in terms of career outcomes, but also have a high acceptance rate. When generating your own 360° MBA Ranking on Unimy, you can choose what matters most to you and see the top-performing MBA programs based on these criteria. You can reorder and reload your MBA ranking as many times as you want.

The newly released Financial Times ranking also means that the latest changes among the world’s leading business schools will be reflected in Unimy’s 360° MBA Ranking.

Beyond Numbers: Finding Your School Culture Fit

There is another significant disadvantage to most rankings and that is the lack of any metrics related to school culture. Just like corporate organizations, different business schools have their own unique environment and it’s only natural for you to want to know where you fit in best. 

Of course, school culture is indeed difficult to measure since it deals with more or less intangible factors – relationship building with students and professors, accepted norms and behaviors on campus, communication practices, etc. Until recently, no major publication has tried to include some measure of school culture in their ranking.

With that in mind, Unimy created the Cultural Fit Index based on organizational studies and original quantitative data, including over 5,100 survey responses from 173 business schools across the world. This feature is also an integral part of the new 360° MBA Ranking. As an MBA candidate, you can personalize your ranking not only using common criteria such as career outcomes and diversity, but also by adding the cultural fit aspect to your selection. In fact, 2/3 of the people who have already used the new ranking chose Cultural Fit as an important factor in their MBA ranking.

What is Cultural Fit Exactly?

School culture can have a profound influence on your MBA experience and it’s useful to learn more about it along with the rest of your research into different programs. You may also end up discovering more about your own preferences along the way. 

For example, are you eager to have a friendly and relaxed relationship with your professors on campus? At some schools, this could be easy to achieve, while others might tolerate more formal relations. Do you have a more individualistic personality with a preference for being recognized for your work? You might find it interesting to know that some business schools are much more focused on teamwork and on recognizing a group’s collective accomplishment rather than that of individuals.

These are just some examples of how cultural fit can be manifested throughout your study experience. Ideally, it is always best to arrange an in-person campus visit and attend an MBA class or open day at the school of your choice to get a feel of the environment. But when this is not possible or if you want to make a shortlist of schools to visit, the 360° MBA Ranking with its Cultural Fit Index can reveal unique insights to help you decide.

So, what’s the verdict? MBA rankings still have a lot to offer but only if you use them in combination with other ways to find and research suitable business schools. By generating a personal MBA ranking on Unimy, every prospective applicant gets the best of both worlds – reliable data from the Financial Times and US News rankings coupled with a personalized approach and school culture fit.