The 2025-2026 US News Best Business Schools report has just been released, with some surprising and some not so surprising results!
For the second year in a row, Wharton is US News’ top MBA program. This makes US News the second business school ranking to rank Wharton (Personal MBA Coach founder Scott Edinburgh’s alma mater) the top business school this year (check out the 2025 Financial Times Ranking blog for more).
For the second year in a row Stanford GSB secured the #2 position, sharing this honor with Kellogg. For Kellogg, earning the title of second-best MBA program is an improvement as the program held the #3 spot last year. Chicago Booth dropped one position to #4, followed by MIT Sloan. MIT also occupied the 5th position in 2024 and 2022. For the second year in a row, Harvard Business School was ranked #6. Dartmouth Tuck and NYU Stern also shared the #6 spot, representing an improvement for both schools. While there has always been shuffling at the top, it is worth nothing that NYU Stern has seen steady improvement over the past few years. The New York City based MBA program was ranked #12 in 2022, #10 in 2023 and #7 in 2024.
Harvard’s lower ranking this year was driven by the school’s employment data: Just over 58.4% of graduates were employed at graduation and 76.9% were employed after three months. By comparison, over 71% of Chicago Booth students were employed at graduation, while Dartmouth Tuck and NYU Stern reported numbers of 79.6% and 78.4%, respectively.
However, despite its ranking performance over the past few years, HBS remain a popular choice for Personal MBA Coach clients, and Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB are considered by many to be the top two MBA programs.
US News ranked Columbia Business School #9, placing it in the top ten for the first time since 2022. Finally, Yale SOM closed out the US News Top 10 Business School list. This was a drop for Yale, which held the #7 spot for the past three years.
Berkeley Haas tied with UVA Darden for #11, followed by Michigan Ross and Duke Fuqua tying for #13. Cornell Johnson remained at #15 for the fourth year in a row, followed by Texas McCombs, which remained 16th. Emory Goizueta jumped a few spots to #17, followed by another tie between CMU Tepper, UCLA Anderson and Vanderbilt Owen.
US News Rankings Methodology
This is the second year that US News used methodology centered on employment data (referred to as Attainment Success), which makes up 50% of a school’s overall score (three years ago, only 35% of the score was based on employment rate).
Quality Assessment, which includes both peer assessment score and recruiter assessment score, makes up 25% of the ranking. The remaining 25% is based on Student Selectivity, which includes GMAT/GRE score, average GPA and acceptance rate.
Using median GMAT/GRE scores means outlier scores have less effect on rankings. This may be welcome news for unique applicants with a low test score, as the change in ranking methodology could lead admissions directors to consider applicants they previously might have excluded.
These rankings and methodology changes are not without controversy, which is why it is even more important this year to remember that rankings are NOT the be-all, end-all.
How to Use MBA Rankings
Personal MBA Coach would like to remind MBA applicants that rankings are just one source of data and often change year-to-year based on ratings criteria. This methodology (and the resulting rankings) will not necessarily change a hiring manager’s perspective of a school in the short (or even medium) term. This is why changes over time are more significant than year-to-year and guide-to-guide fluctuations.
However, the constant shuffling at the top demonstrates the growing competition among elite business schools and many compelling options for MBA hopefuls.
While the M7 business schools receive a lot of attention, Personal MBA Coach urges our clients to consider a broad range of schools. Our average client applies to five to seven programs to maximize their chances of acceptance.
For more information on how to use the US News Best Business Schools 2025-2026 report or other MBA rankings,
check out our tips in this blog.
Beyond MBA rankings, when choosing a business school, you should consider factors including a school’s location, culture, academic programming, areas of specialization, and job placement rate. Similarly, culture and teaching style vary across schools. To learn more, we encourage you to review Personal MBA Coach’s new school guides.
Finally, available financing also should be a key consideration since you may be able to secure more funding from one school than another. Last cycle, Personal MBA Coach’s clients earned $11M in scholarships. Depending on your personal circumstances, you might be inclined to select a school with a more favorable financial package regardless of ranking. Some M7 schools are very generous with scholarships while others award them much more sparingly.
Looking for help with school selection? Reach out today for a consultation!
