The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania claimed the top spot in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-2025 ranking of executive MBA programs in the United States. It’s the second year in a row Wharton has ranked No. 1 after finishing second in both 2022 and 2023’s list.
The top six EMBA programs on the 2025 ranking are identical to last year’s U.S. News’ list. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management finished second after finishing third in 2022, first in 2023, second in 2024.
Kellogg is followed by University of University of Chicago Booth School of Business at No. 3, Columbia Business School (No. 4), Duke University Fuqua School of Business (No. 5), and New York University Stern School of Business (No. 6).
The first change from the 2025 and 2024 lists is at the seventh spot. UC Berkeley Haas School of Business climbed two spots to claim No. 7, switching places with University of Michigan Ross School of Business which fell two places to No. 9. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management finished at No. 8 for the second straight year while UCLA Anderson School of Management rounded out the top 10.
U.S. News Top 10 EMBA Programs |
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| 2025 Rank | School Name | 2024 Rank | YOY Change |
| 1 | UPenn (Wharton) | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | Northwestern (Kellogg) | 2 | 0 |
| 3 | Chicago (Booth) | 3 | 0 |
| 4 | Columbia | 4 | 0 |
| 5 | Duke (Fuqua) | 5 | 0 |
| 6 | New York (Stern) | 6 | 0 |
| 7 | UC-Berkeley (Haas) | 9 | 2 |
| 8 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) | 8 | 0 |
| 9 | Michigan (Ross) | 7 | -2 |
| 10 | UCLA (Anderson) | 10 | 0 |
THE BIGGEST WINNERS
Like U.S. News’ full-time MBA specialization rankings, the executive MBA list is based solely on ratings by business school deans and directors of AACSB-accredited MBA programs.
Respondents are asked to nominate up to 15 programs for excellence from the list of business schools surveyed. Schools receiving the most votes are numerically ranked based on the number of nominations they received, as long as the program received seven or more nominations. This means schools ranked at the bottom of each specialty ranking received at least seven nominations, U.S. News explains in its methodology.
For the current list, Saint Joseph’s Haub School of Business jumped the highest, rising five spots to No. 17. The Philadelphia business school offers either an accelerated 12-month or a more flexible 16-month EMBA.
Two more schools rose three spots apiece: Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business jumping to No. 11 and Xavier University Williams College of Business rising to No. 24.
Fordham Gabelli School of Business held steady after soaring 12 spots to No. 19 last year – the highest of any other school. This year, it rose one more spot to No. 18 in a two-way tie with ASU Carey. Gabelli ranked 62th overall in Best Business Schools and 42nd in part-time MBAs.
At $114,000, Gabelli’s EMBA is also a relative bargain – at least compared to the soaring prices at brand name schools. We recently picked it as among our top 12 EMBA programs for those looking for a strong return on investment.
THE BIGGEST FALLS
U.S. News ranked just 24 programs this cycle compared to 30 last year. EMBA programs that were ranked last year but are not on this year’s list include:
- SCU Marshall School of Business (No. 21 last year)
- University of San Francisco (Masagung) (No. 22)
- Marquette University (No. 27)
- Pennsylvania State (Smeal) (No. 27)
- University of Washington (Foster) (No. 27)
The school that posted the sharpest decline was Virginia (Darden) falling eight spots to No. 21. North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) fell three spots to No. 14 and Michigan Ross fell two spots to No. 9.
Beyond that, only two other schools dropped one spot compared to last year, making this list pretty consistent to the 2024 version. Last year, U.S. News changed its methodology, causing plenty of wild swings up and down the MBA ranking. But, it seemed to even out on the EMBA list.
WHARTON’S TOP-RANKED EMBA
Of course, it’s never surprising to see Wharton at the top of an MBA ranking. It’s full-time program tied with Stanford Graduate School of Business for No. 1 on U.S. New’s latest ranking. (Stanford doesn’t offer an executive MBA).
Wharton offers traditional, in-person executive MBAs at both its Philadelphia and San Francisco campuses. It also offers a Global EMBA with 75% of content delivered live online. Cost for all three programs is the same, $223,500.
Along with the regular MBA rankings, U.S. News also published a series of specialized rankings. The Wharton School ranked in the top 10 on 10 different specialties (out of 13 total). It ranked first in finance, EMBA, and real estate – the same as last year.
It also ranked second in accounting and marketing, third in business analytics, and fifth in management.
The Wharton School had 467 EMBA candidates in 2023 according to U.S. News ranking data, 319 were accepted and 275 enrolled. Its acceptance rate was 68.3% compared to 51.4% a year ago.
Wharton’s EMBA has the same admissions requirements as the full-time MBA, requiring GMAT, GRE, or EA. It also requires at least 8 years of work experience, two essays, and two letters of recommendation.
Go to the next page to see the full U.S. News ranking of Executive MBA programs for 2024-2025.
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