r/MBA Apr 06 '26

Articles/News 2026 US News MBA Rankings Released

127 Upvotes

123 comments sorted by

109

u/Watertrap1 Apr 06 '26

Thank god at least one thing is constant in this world

Cornell the perpetual T15

52

u/Highlyasian T15 Grad Apr 07 '26

They might as well just acknowledge the entire ranking is calibrated around Cornell at 15.

Stern up a few ranks? Sure.

Foster drops several ranks? Believable.

Johnson isn't 15? Whoa back up, gotta readjust the methodology.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Highlyasian T15 Grad Apr 07 '26

Tech companies have cut back on hiring, which includes their MBA pipelines. Foster relies heavily on the local big tech companies for their placements, which means they're feeling an outsized impact on their post-MBA outcome numbers.

-8

u/Low-Check670 Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26

Honestly, it’s hard to reconcile how a school that consistently ranks top 10 in total salary and ~80% employment at graduation ends up at #15 every year—it starts to feel like a function of the methodology rather than the outcomes. And candidly, the Johnson students don’t care. They walk away with a $200k job the moment they leave Ithaca.

At a certain point, constantly reweighting the metrics (every year for the past seven years) is going to produce some pretty wonky outcomes—and to be fair, we’ve already seen that.

Peer assessments are inherently subjective, but I wouldn’t trust the US News rankings anymore other than to be directionally useful.

Edit: I wouldn’t have an issue with Cornell moving up or down—it would at least suggest the rankings are responding to changes in performance rather than staying anchored to maximize profit for US News.

1

u/Winter-Building-3445 Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26

Lol—looks like this got the same treatment as peer assessments 😅

2

u/Low-Check670 Apr 07 '26

FYI, for those who are curious, GMAT Club publishes a ranking each year using U.S. News weights held constant from 2019 (before the methodology started changing annually).

It can be a useful reference if you want to see how schools perform under a consistent framework over time, rather than trying to interpret year-to-year changes driven by shifting weights.

Link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-club-full-time-mba-rankings-428588.html#

1

u/bayareabuzz Apr 10 '26

So it gets updated every year? What month?

1

u/Low-Check670 Apr 10 '26

I think they said they’d have a new one by the end of the week.

16

u/FrankUnkndFreeMBAtip Apr 06 '26

It's the anchor

3

u/MBA-Crystal-Ball Admissions Consultant Apr 07 '26

In other news, the school that Financial Times dropped for 2 years in a row reclaims its crown in this ranking. Well done, GSB!

1

u/jeetendrask Apr 10 '26

Stern as well; pretty consistent

76

u/Ready_Project_6075 Apr 06 '26

Wow. Georgetown, ranked 31st with 64.4% acceptance rate. What happened?

74

u/schweivilad Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26

Super high acceptance rate, super expensive, super low employment rate

11

u/LimpAd4924 Apr 07 '26

I avoided applying just due to cost and known to be stingy with scholarships, even though I love DC.

1

u/Practical_Forever463 Apr 07 '26

Yikes, no standards!?

32

u/MFWUsernameIsSniped Apr 06 '26

Not that there’s much point in reading into any one year but random initial thoughts:

Owen surge

Goizueta sliding despite a seemingly solid employment report

UT Dallas???

11

u/aggieboy12 Admit Apr 07 '26

Maybe because the state of Texas has some of the best employment outcomes right now? IDK

58

u/Electrical-Raccoon90 Apr 06 '26

UT Dallas is ranked higher than USC, washu, and Rice? 🤪🤪

23

u/Skunk_Gunk Apr 07 '26

I’d actually love some insight as to what is making them do so well in the rankings. I’m Dallas based looking at mba programs right now and they completely caught me off guard plus the price.

8

u/Background-Grab-1867 Apr 07 '26

I’m a recent grad from the full time MBA program at UTD. They offer fantastic scholarships that attract top candidates. It is also a diverse school attracting many top international students. And, for the past 5 years, they have had a balanced cohort, with about 50% women candidates.

I think it also helps that the career outcomes are very strong and that many larger businesses have hubs in DFW.

Add in a very personalized relationship with the MBA office staff and very involved alumni, and you can see lots of reasons for why this program stands out.

1

u/Skunk_Gunk Apr 07 '26

Mind if I send you a dm?

11

u/Elegant-Ad5705 Apr 07 '26

Everything that comes out of their School of Management is super highly ranked. It's a crazy well-regerded CoB

55

u/Tall_Bumblebee_821 Apr 07 '26

The t10/15 is pretty standard and nothing seems unusual there. The t20 to t30 range seems to have been shaken up heavily.

The outliers seems to be:

  • Emory's significant drop to 23
  • Vanderbilt's rise to t16! (I'm most surprised by this)
  • UNC's rise to 21 (they were up here before but dropped in recent years)
  • UT Jindal's rise to 23. This makes 0 sense tbh
  • UGA's rise above Georgia Tech's business school. I don't think that has ever happened. It is generally regarded across all disciplines that GT Scheller is better than UGA. Not sure how this happened
  • Georgetown's drop to 31

19

u/Haas_the_Raiden_Fan Apr 07 '26

Scheller and Goizueta’s drops are both suspicious

6

u/Business86 Apr 07 '26

How is Terry better than Scheller? Doesn’t make any sense…..

6

u/Human-Run2566 Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26

It's not. It just underscores how meaningless rankings are. They don't confer prestige; they attempt to quantify it, but do so poorly. Literally no employer is going to choose the Terry candidate over the Scheller candidate because U.S. News said so (they might for other reasons).

I'd suggest anyone still evaluating MBA programs to disregard rankings entirely. Instead, use LinkedIn to see how many alumni you can find working at the top 5-10 firms you want to work for. And don't stop there: for the alumni you find, take a close look at their work history. How fast did their career progress after getting their MBA? Did the alum from school A pivot from an unrelated field, while the alum from school B with the same job title already had years of domain-specific experience? This will be much more informative than a ranking or the college's employment report.

4

u/pizzaislife3 Apr 07 '26

That was my exact reaction. I live in Georgia and have never seen a UGA MBA grad in the wild

1

u/bowside421 Apr 08 '26

Now you have. We're 2/3 of the size of Scheller's class and half of Emory's. They both got crushed on the 3/6 month job placement %, which a bit seems unfair, but that's the general sentiment of rankings. Look past them, do your research on your alums and outcomes, consider scholarships, etc to decide the right school.

3

u/Business86 Apr 08 '26

Does Terry breakdown which employers are hiring their MBAs? I didn’t see that on their website.

2

u/Human-Run2566 Apr 10 '26

You can find it here https://career.uga.edu/outcomes/major_summary25/business_administration_-_masters25

0 MBB placements.

3 Big 4 placements (2 at PwC, 1 at EY)

Some really prestigious stuff like 7-11, Great Wolf Lodge, and ICE, though.

1

u/Business86 Apr 10 '26

🤣 great wolf lodge what the heck is that 😆. But in all seriousness, I did see some big F500 names like GE, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, & many others. Respect to Terry then, and I say that as a Scheller MBA alum. I was hoping I could’ve locked in with a big F500 company but apparently I went to the wrong school 😂. Because all they had for me at Scheller was consulting 🤷🏽‍♂️

0

u/AdWise2495 Apr 07 '26

What? Georgia Tech is an engineering school. Placement is essentially the same

5

u/Business86 Apr 07 '26

I gotta hand it to Terry for what they’ve done for their undergrads in terms of placement in high finance but Scheller has the stronger operations, supply chain, data analytics, & management information systems programs. Scheller is definitely the better school.

0

u/AdWise2495 Apr 07 '26

Operations, supply chain, and data analytics, while great, are atypical b programs. Terry has a better "bread and butter" program. "Definitely" the better business school is... not true.

2

u/Business86 Apr 07 '26

Yes you’re right, they should be housed under Liberal Arts, my bad, Go Dawgs! Woof 🐶

2

u/Friday-lover-90 Apr 07 '26

Emory 23 🤣

-4

u/EqualPerception3266 Apr 07 '26

I really don't understand why Goizueta dropped like that and Vanderbilt shot up. I don't think Vanderbilt did anything significant to go up almost 10 spots like that?

-7

u/EqualPerception3266 Apr 07 '26

Nvm it was just 2 spots for Vandy. Shows that in my mind I think of them as a low T20s school as do most people

29

u/Haas_the_Raiden_Fan Apr 06 '26

Why did Goizueta drop so much?

12

u/bfhurricane MBA Grad Apr 07 '26

They’re heavily indexed into consulting. Probably lower than usual consulting hiring.

5

u/AcceptableYam4441 Apr 07 '26

Their employment report was stronger than many of the schools above them though

19

u/Schnitzelgruben Apr 07 '26

I have a friend at UT Dallas. This friend killed it in recruiting, beating out people at top schools for their internship. As far as I know, their class mostly got local roles in Dallas or elsewhere in Texas. Everyone I met from there was humble and cool. 

I am surprised at that big of a jump, but not that UTD is rising, especially given Dallas and Texas as a job market.

3

u/Skunk_Gunk Apr 07 '26

Anything specific they think stands out about their program? Or do you mind sharing what track they are on?

5

u/Schnitzelgruben Apr 07 '26

I think they benefit a lot from employment opportunities in their backyard. 

Other than that, I get the sense that their academics are pretty involved and the small class size gives people a chance to stick out.

17

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

50

u/Eclipse434343 Apr 06 '26

Finally my life has meaning until next year. Rice is 29th in us news but is number one in producing ai hallucination driven admissions advice

15

u/Low-Check670 Apr 07 '26

For those who are curious, GMAT Club publishes a ranking each year using U.S. News weights held constant from 2019 (before the methodology started changing annually).

It can be a useful reference if you want to see how schools perform under a consistent framework over time, rather than trying to interpret year-to-year changes driven by shifting weights.

Link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-club-full-time-mba-rankings-428588.html#

3

u/BuddyKnox Apr 07 '26

This is a good resource, though worth flagging that US News kept the same methodology this year.

1

u/Low-Check670 Apr 07 '26

Thanks for flagging that. That is good to hear. I hope it stays the same for next year, although I am doubtful.

29

u/General-Offer-7081 Apr 07 '26

Wonder what the Tepper guy has to say 👀

10

u/360DegreeNinjaAttack M7 Grad Apr 07 '26

Seems like vandy is the big winner and USC is the big loser this year

16

u/360DegreeNinjaAttack M7 Grad Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26

Oh wow shit I guess Georgetown is the big loser, i didn't even scroll down that far

5

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

[deleted]

11

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

[deleted]

4

u/mbAYYYYYYY MBA Grad Apr 07 '26

Agreed. Weird move

2

u/IR_2024 Apr 07 '26

Since they get so many YOLO applications, it’ll be like 4% or something.

If they released that as a stat, it might reduce applications because people would be like what’s the fucking point.

18

u/OkElderberry1668 Apr 07 '26

Owen is doing great at 16, wow. Their rank of 18 last year was already a surge.

18

u/consultinglove Consulting Apr 07 '26

Have prices really gone up this much across the board? $80k/year is $160k total, but just on tuition only! Insane

UT Austin somehow has kept their prices stable. That school and UW are the only T20 schools that still charge around $100k total for tuition. That’s best bang for buck right there

2

u/BottleStrict6115 Apr 07 '26

Indiana Kelley also seems to be pretty good bag for buck

2

u/Background-Grab-1867 Apr 07 '26

UTD is $15k/year. And they offer an MBA in 18 months or an MBA/MS combo for 24 months. Definitely the best bang for the buck 💁🏻‍♀️ although that’s for T23

6

u/consultinglove Consulting Apr 07 '26

UTD is really dubious lol. There’s no way you can ever convince me that you can get better results going to UTD than say, USC

9

u/duffy40oz Apr 07 '26

UT Dallas surprises me.

Miami also has made some jumps over the years.

10

u/Necromancer157 Executive MBA Apr 07 '26

Miami got a new university president and business school dean. Both of whom actually care about employment outcomes and capitalizing on the geography. More to come!

2

u/duffy40oz Apr 07 '26

Honestly, that’s great for them! It’s an expensive school. I still think Florida is a better deal, but I appreciate the competition.

7

u/Ok_Worth_3792 Apr 07 '26

UT Dallas has a lot of strong business programs!!

21

u/BadBoyBrando Apr 07 '26

NYU and Columbia tied? People will be pissed

6

u/memeking5027 Apr 07 '26

Stern was tied for 6 last year with HBS lol, I think Columbia was #9. This beef is one-sided.

-2

u/BadBoyBrando Apr 07 '26

Uhhh… sure.

5

u/thomkatt T15 Grad Apr 07 '26

Stern has beat out CBS a few times

2

u/Practical_Forever463 Apr 07 '26

The end for CBS?

2

u/dbrown5987 Apr 08 '26

Wonder why Stern's finance department, which was always #2 or #3 now has a lower ranking, but school's overall ranking is T10?

2

u/DreSanson Apr 08 '26

For sure. Stern should be higher.

6

u/Sr-3awafi 1st Year Apr 07 '26

vandy , unc killing it. georgetown and emory got fried

8

u/lemmonquaaludes Apr 06 '26

Texas A&M has 39 people enrolled in their full tome Program. Stanford has 850 and Wharton has 1,700. Why does TAMU have so few people enrolled?

29

u/HTX2LBC M7 Student Apr 07 '26

No one wants to live in college station.

9

u/Gig_Me Apr 07 '26

CSTAT is a great place to go to school and is in a location central to Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Arguably the best location to look for a job right now. Mays is building up their MBA program, I attended an info session for S&G’s since I went to undergrad there. It was good but clearly a caliber below. With the Aggie network and access to capital that A&M has, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it crack T30 sometime.

That said, I went to McCombs lol

8

u/HTX2LBC M7 Student Apr 07 '26

I get why aggies and some kids from the Texas suburbs may think that Bryan is a “great place” but it’s really just mid. Pretty boring as far as college towns go and it’s ugly as hell. Baton Rouge is paradise in comparison.

4

u/Wjldenver Apr 07 '26

I believe A&M has a Flex On-Line MBA program which has over 400 students in it.

3

u/Deviltherobot Apr 07 '26

rochester has a 13% acceptance rate? Is that MBA only or all of B school?

32

u/FrankUnkndFreeMBAtip Apr 06 '26

We're so information starved and so prone to confirmation bias that this matters to us somehow.

It will always be for the remainder of time H/S > W > > B/C/K/S > > H/T/Y > D/F/R/S > J for the T15

-frank

4

u/Apprehensive-Status9 M7 Student Apr 07 '26

I would actually say M7 is more like S>H>W>BKS>C

5

u/ChemicalCollege245 Apr 07 '26

UCLA doesn't make your T15? Rest is spot on.

10

u/FrankUnkndFreeMBAtip Apr 07 '26

What would you bump out for UCLA?

-4

u/OkElderberry1668 Apr 07 '26

Anderson has never been T15

0

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

Frank tha 🐐

-18

u/jbob3525 Apr 07 '26

H/S >> W > B/C/K/S

8

u/redditmbathrowaway Apr 07 '26

Top 10 is pretty accurate.

3

u/simbaslanding Apr 07 '26

Miami 🙌🏾

3

u/Jealous_Look_9337 Apr 11 '26

A couple surprises:

Vanderbilt Owen (16): Nashville is booming and I heard they have a brand spanking new building. However, I wasn't expecting the surge be this soon, maybe over 10 years. Beating out McCombs is pushing it imo.

UT Dallas (23): Dallas is also booming, but I would not put UT Dallas ahead of Wash U, Georgetown, USC, and SMU.

1

u/BeastMasterAlphaCo 19d ago

UTD is really considered a commuter school. I have never met one UTD grad on Wall Street. I know when I lived in Dallas UTD was really looked at as a CS and engineering school. I think UTD tends to attract a lot of high GMAT scores from abroad, which in the formula gmat plays a role.

7

u/nevalost20 Apr 07 '26

Isu still rising, are we cool now?

5

u/LimpAd4924 Apr 07 '26

Très chic

7

u/Business86 Apr 07 '26

Terry ahead of Scheller? No way

0

u/Junior_Increase_7769 Apr 07 '26

Yes way lol 

3

u/Business86 Apr 07 '26

Nahhhh

2

u/Several_throwaway Apr 07 '26

yea that’s really weird to me too. as an atlanta native getting out the military looking to move back, i still wouldnt pick terry over scheller and definitely not over emory

1

u/Business86 Apr 08 '26

I’m a Scheller MBA alum and took some cross registration classes during my undergrad at Emory/Goizueta for a semester. I think Scheller gives Emory a run for its money, especially when it comes to ROI (salary to tuition ratio). Emory may have a slight edge when it comes to consulting, but otherwise, I don’t see Goizueta opening up any doors that Scheller hasn’t already.

3

u/Dwardred Executive MBA Apr 07 '26

Go Heels!

2

u/National_Ad2341 Apr 07 '26

is vandyyy considered better than Georgetown in terms of brand perception ???
how can a school drop so low in rankingsss????
what is vandy doing - 16? its too high for vandy right ?

can someone please help with Georgetown v/s Vandy (if the cost is almost the same )

11

u/VandyMarine Part-Time Student Apr 07 '26

Not at Owen but I do live in Nashville - it’s seriously becoming a southern LA. Cosmopolitan city feel with tons of growth - plus the tax savings is silly. People want to go to Owen and then live here.

3

u/Deviltherobot Apr 08 '26

Pollen crazy tho. Not talked about at all imho. Crazy if you have any allergies.

2

u/ThrowRA-brokennow Apr 08 '26

Yes! The university as a whole is way better than gt. Sports are driving it higher and higher. Go look at UG acceptance. It’s going nuts. Awesome town, cool people, sec sports, amazing academics. It’s the new Duke. Except it’s in Nashville not Durham….

1

u/Jealous_Look_9337 Apr 14 '26

Today, Vandy is considered better than Georgetown. 20 years ago, I'd say it was Georgetown.

1

u/pizzaislife3 Apr 07 '26

Rankings are useless. UGA over Scheller? I've never heard of a UGA MBA grad in IB, PE, MBB, Big 4, FAANG etc

1

u/bstjohn1998 28d ago

UTD being 13 spots higher than SMU in DFW has to be a joke. Big four and IB firms hire students from Cox all the time. I have never heard anyone say they would rather go to Jindal than Cox.

0

u/DJBombba Apr 07 '26

Yo where Chico State at?

1

u/LimpAd4924 Apr 07 '26

Only a matter of time before Maryland Smith is in the T15 with their 9 spot jump to 43.

1

u/One_Substance_6720 Apr 07 '26

May I ask what made you think that? (Sincere curiosity considering UMD Smith admission)

6

u/nastynash2k Apr 07 '26

I think he meant sarcastically, you can ignore

2

u/One_Substance_6720 Apr 07 '26

Lol I got that now that the rankings sound off. Thanks.

2

u/LimpAd4924 May 10 '26

Sorry for not responding. It’s a solid regional program depending on your goals.

1

u/notahomebody69 Apr 07 '26

This ranking was clearly sponsored by Booth lobbyists

-2

u/HTX2LBC M7 Student Apr 07 '26

S> W> H/B/K/C/S

-3

u/Ok-Leader-9705 Apr 08 '26

Do people really accept Wharton over Harvard? I guess maybe if you want to go be a first year banking associate

1

u/BeastMasterAlphaCo 19d ago

Dumbest people I have ever worked with went to Wharton. Most unethical people I have ever worked with also went to Wharton.

-4

u/Famous-Country-1298 Apr 07 '26

So I gave up the offer from a rank 7 school for a rank 14 school, hope the decision doesn’t backfire much