Top 25 MBA Programs in 2008

Each June, www.MarketingTalentNetwork.com posts their annual rankings of top 25 MBA programs on the website.  The following is a list of top MBA programs from The Cambridge Group Executive Search firm.  These rankings are based on a variety of factors, but mainly on the feedback they receive from human resource management and marketing management in consumer products companies across the country.

1. Harvard University
2. University of Chicago
3. Stanford University
4. Dartmouth College / Tuck
5. Columbia University
6. Northwestern / Kellogg
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Sloan
8. University of California – Berkeley / Haas
9. University of Pennsylvania / Wharton
10. University of Michigan / Ross
11. Yale University
12. New York University / Stern
13. University of Virginia / Darden
14. Cornell University / Johnson
15. Duke University / Fuqua
16. University of California – Los Angeles / Anderson
17. University of North Carolina / Kenan-Flagler
18. Carnegie Mellon University / Tepper
19. University of Southern California / Marshall
20. Emory University / Goizeuta
21. Georgetown University / McDonough
22. University of Texas – Austin / McCombs
23. Indiana University / Kelley
24. Michigan State University / Broad
25. University of Rochester / Simon

Some readers will almost invariably disagree with certain parts of this list, and there are a number of other lists — some of them with wide variations in where different schools are placed.  For example, while Business Week has Harvard listed as number 4, the Wall Street Journal has them listed as 14.  Perhaps the most radical difference on an overall MBA national rankings list is between the Princeton Review’s listing of Stanford University as #1 and the listing of that same school as #19 by the Wall Street Journal.

Different national MBA rankings that you might want to consider include:

• www.MarketingTalentNetwork.com
• Business Week
• Wall Street Journal
• The Financial Times
• Forbes
• The Princeton Review
• US News and World Report

Another consideration is the area of specialization in which you are interested.  For example, while Carnegie Mellon is only number 18 in overall MBA rankings (of the above lists, only the Wall Street Journal has them listed higher than 16), they are generally considered to have one of the top two or three MBA concentrations in e-Marketing/e-Commerce.  As another example, two of the top International MBA programs in the United States are Thunderbird and Broad (University of South Carolina), neither of which even make the top 25 rankings. 

Bottom line?  None of these rankings are perfect, and the value of each MBA program is to a certain extent “in-the-eye-of-the-beholder”.  But this list and others can serve as a guide for those considering an MBA for their future — and can provide those who already have an MBA with some indication of how much value some employers may place on that degree.

 John