Harvard Named World’s Best Business School in QS Rankings

The 2024 QS World University Rankings for Business and Management studies named Harvard University as the premiere institution for studying business. INSEAD (France) and the London Business School followed Harvard, while Stanford University and MIT ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. The top five ranked universities did not change from 2023. 

QS bases its business school rankings on an aggregate of four indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper, and H-indices (a measure of the productivity and impact of a university department’s research). Harvard’s top ranking stemmed from a perfect score (100) on the employer reputation indicator, and a near-perfect score (98.4) on academic reputation. INSEAD received a perfect score for academic reputation while London Business School fell just short of perfect with an academic reputation score of 99.1. 

The University of Pennsylvania was the final U.S. school to rank in the top ten, taking the seventh spot. In total, ten of the top 25 programs were U.S.-based programs. Below, we’ve listed the top ten, and the U.S.-based schools ranked in the top 50. Check out the full ranking here.

Top Ten:

1. Harvard University

2. INSEAD, France

3. London Business School, United Kingdom

4. Stanford University

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

6. University of Oxford, United Kingdom

7. University of Pennsylvania

8. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

9. Bocconi University, Italy

10. National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore

U.S.-based Schools Ranked in the Top 50:

13. University of California, Berkeley 

15. New York University (NYU)

16. University of Chicago

17. Northwestern University

20. Columbia University

25. Yale University

33. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

37. University of California, Los Angeles

38. Cornell University

Chicago Schools Come Out on Top in U.S. News’ Best MBA Rankings

University of Chicago Booth took the top spot in the newly released U.S. News and World Report’s “Best MBA” ranking. Booth was followed by Northwestern Kellogg at number two. University of Pennsylvania Wharton dropped to number three after sharing the top rank with Booth last year. This year’s rankings utilized an updated methodology with a greater emphasis on outcomes, which caused some shifts within the top 15. Highlights include:

• Dartmouth Tuck saw the largest uptick, moving from the 11th rank in 2022 to share the 6th rank with Stanford. 

• USC Marshall climbed four spots to the 15th rank, which it holds alongside Cornell Johnson.

• Harvard maintained its 5th rank position for the third consecutive year.

• Stanford, Columbia, and Berkeley Haas all dropped three spots from their positions last year. Columbia and Berkeley fell out of the top 10 into a three-way tie for the 11th rank with Duke Fuqua.

Along with the rankings, U.S. News shared key updates to its methodology, which increased the weight for “Placement Success,” to 50 percent of the overall rank. This is up significantly from 35 percent last year and includes two employment metrics as well as the mean starting salary and bonus for graduates. The overall rank de-emphasized the “Quality Assessment” to 25 percent of the total, down from 40 percent, and includes a peer and recruiter assessment score. “Student Selectivity” makes up the final 25 percent of the rank. It includes undergraduate GPA and acceptance rate, weighted slightly more than in previous years, and standardized test scores, weighted slightly less. 

Rank/School

1 University of Chicago (Booth)

2 Northwestern University (Kellogg)

3 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)

5 Harvard University

6 Dartmouth College (Tuck)

6 Stanford University

8 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor (Ross)

8 Yale University

10 New York University (Stern)

11 Columbia University

11 Duke University (Fuqua)

11 University of California, Berkeley (Haas)

14 University of Virginia (Darden)

15 Cornell University (Johnson)

15 University of Southern California (Marshall)

17 Emory University (Goizueta)

18 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)

19 University of California--Los Angeles (Anderson)

20 University of Texas--Austin (McCombs)

20 University of Washington (Foster)

22 Indiana University (Kelley)

22 University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)

24 Georgetown University (McDonough)

24 Rice University (Jones)

US News Ranks Chicago Booth and UPenn Wharton as Best Business Schools

The US News and World Report published its 2023 Business School Rankings today with University of Chicago’s Booth and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton taking the top spot, previously held by Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Stanford fell to the third rank, which it shares with Northwestern University’s Kellogg. Generally, the top ten looks similar to last year, although there was some movement. Notably, University of Michigan’s Ross moved to the 10th spot from 13th last year, and Dartmouth’s Tuck and NYU’s Stern, who were tied at 10th last year, dropped to 11th and 12th respectively. NYU Stern shares the 12th ranking with Duke’s Fuqua. 

Find the complete 2023 Best Business Schools ranking.

Chicago’s Booth also took the top spot in the part-time MBA program rankings. As per usual, there was no movement within the top five ranked part-time programs, with each program retaining its rank from last year. In fact, the top five ranked part-time MBA programs have been consistent for the past four years of rankings. 

Find the complete 2023 Best Part-time MBA ranking.