THE 50 BEST NORTH AMERICAN EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAMS
P&Q Rank & School | Index | FT | BW | WSJ | News |
1. Pennsylvania (Wharton) Philadelphia, PA & San Francisco, CA | 100.0 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
2. Chicago (Booth) Chicago, IL, London & Singapore | 96.7 | 5 | 2 | 16 | 3 |
3. Northwestern (Kellogg) Evanston, IL | 96.2 | 20 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
4. Columbia Business School New York, NY | 94.8 | 15 | 4 | 9 | 5 |
5. New York (Stern) New York, NY | 92.1 | 17 | 14 | 7 | 6 |
6. Michigan (Ross) Ann Arbor, MI | 87.7 | 31 | 7 | 15 | 8 |
7. UCLA (Anderson) Los Angeles, CA | 86.4 | 38 | 8 | 11 | 9 |
8. Cornell (Johnson) Ithaca, NY | 80.1 | 24 | ST | 8 | 20 |
9. Texas (McCombs) Austin, TX | 73.1 | 52 | ST | 12 | 14 |
10. USC (Marshall) Los Angeles, CA | 72.1 | NR | 5 | 4 | 12 |
11. Duke (Fuqua) Durham, NC | 71.6 | 9 | 10 | NR | 4 |
12. UNC (Kenan-Flagler) Chapel Hill, NC | 69.6 | NR | 11 | 10 | 10 |
13. Berkeley/Columbia Berkeley, CA & New York, NY | 66.5 | 13 | NR | 23 | 7 |
14. Washington (Olin) St. Louis, MO | 62.5 | 18 | ST | 2 | NR |
15. Emory (Goizueta) Atlanta, GA | 60.9 | 41 | 12 | NR | 11 |
16. Boston University Boston, MA | 56.3 | 40 | 23 | 20 | NR |
17. Georgetown (McDonough) Washington, D.C. | 55.4 | 46 | 18 | NR | 23 |
18. Thunderbird Glendale, AZ | 52.8 | 55 | ST | 3 | NR |
19. Rice University (Jones) Houston, TX | 52.3 | 41 | ST | 19 | NR |
20. Southern Methodist (Cox) Dallas, TX | 51.0 | 78 | 9 | NR | 14 |
21. Ohio State (Fisher) Columbus, OH | 50.4 | 74 | 15 | 17 | NR |
22. Notre Dame (Mendoza) Notre Dame, IN | 45.0 | NR | 20 | 6 | NR |
23. Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ | 43.7 | 73 | ST | 21 | NR |
24. Arizona State (Carey) Tempe, AZ | 41.2 | 28 | NR | 13 | NR |
25. Maryland (Smith) College Park, MD | 36.8 | 36 | NR | 22 | NR |
26. California-Irvine (Merage) Irvine, CA | 36.2 | NR | ST | NR | 23 |
27. Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada | 35.7 | 29 | ST | NR | NR |
27. Fordham New York, NY | 35.7 | NR | ST | NR | 25 |
29. Toronto (Rotman) Toronto, Canada | 34.5 | 29 | ST | NR | NR |
30. Cornell/Queen’s Ithaca, NY & Kingston, Canada | 32.9 | NR | NR | 18 | NR |
31. Pittsburgh (Katz) Pittsburgh, PA | 30.6 | 44 | ST | NR | NR |
32. Texas, Dallas Dallas, TX | 29.5 | 64 | 22 | NR | NR |
33. Queen’s School of Business Kingston, Canada | 27.5 | 69 | 25 | NR | NR |
34. Vanderbilt (Owen) Nashville, TN | 26.9 | 72 | NR | 25 | NR |
35. Texas A&M (Mays) College Station, TX | 26.0 | 62 | ST | NR | NR |
36. Minnesota (Carlson) Minneapolis, MN | 24.8 | 67 | ST | NR | NR |
37. Tulane (Freeman) New Orleans, LA | 22.5 | 75 | ST | NR | NR |
37. Loyola University Chicago, IL | 22.5 | 89 | NR | NR | 25 |
39. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL | 22.3 | NR | NR | 14 | NR |
40. Georgia State (Robinson) Atlanta, GA | 21.9 | 78 | ST | NR | NR |
41. Case Western (Weatherhead) Cleveland, OH | 20.5 | NR | 21 | NR | NR |
42. Washington (Foster) Seattle, WA | 20.3 | 84 | ST | NR | NR |
43. Houston (Bauer) Houston, TX | 19.8 | 86 | ST | NR | NR |
43. Pepperdine (Graziadio) Malibu, CA | 19.8 | 86 | ST | NR | NR |
45. Tennessee Knoxville, TN | 16.8 | 98 | ST | NR | NR |
46. Wisconsin Madison, WI | 16.1 | NR | ST | NR | NR |
46. Purdue (Krannert) West Lafayette, IN | 16.1 | NR | ST | NR | NR |
46. Northeastern Boston, MA | 16.1 | NR | ST | NR | NR |
46. Penn State (Smeal) University Park, PA | 16.1 | NR | ST | NR | NR |
50. Temple (Fox) Philadelphia, PA | 14.8 | 43 | NR | NR | NR |
Notes: The P&Q ranking equally weights the latest rankings by BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and U.S. News & World Report. NR — Not rated. ST — Second tier rank.
Methodology: The guidelines different organizations use to compile their rankings can affect which schools and programs get on their lists. The Financial Times, for example, will not include any program that has fewer than five graduating classes. That seems like a smart rule because a program that has been in existence for less than five years shouldn’t be ranked as one of the best in the world. BusinessWeek, meanwhile, excludes all partnership programs on the basis that comparing a one school program with another that has multiple partners is like comparing apples and oranges. While that keeps some very good programs, such as Berkeley/Columbia’s EMBA and NYU/London School of Economics/HEC Paris’ TRIUM program, off the BW list, the biggest concern over such partnerships is quality control. Such guidelines obviously put both newer and partnership programs at a disadvantage not only in those rankings but in this composite ranking as well.