When rankings focus on student results, Foster rises to #12 in U.S.
If business schools were ranked based on MBA students’ results, the Foster School would leap to #12 in the country, according to MBA ranking site, Poets & Quants.
Poets & Quants re-ranked the schools in response to a recent Fortune magazine essay by Dean Glenn Hubbard of Columbia University’s Business School, who recommended weighting the MBA rankings based on student inputs and outputs. Hubbard wrote, “Every business school dean, myself included, will tell you that their school is the best, so as much as it pains me to say, you should probably look past the deans. Instead, look to the students. It’s in the student network that you will find the metrics that matter for assessing any business school: inputs and outputs.”
What would a new ranking focused on student metrics look like?
Poets & Quants analyzed publicly available data to re-weight the ranking of the top 25 business schools in the U.S. When those student inputs – applications per seat and yield (acceptance of admissions offers) and outputs – job placement rates and pay – are weighted most heavily, schools that focus on student results rise to the top.
Based on the student performance factors, Foster ranks #12, above Duke, Yale, Cornell and Michigan, and third among public schools.
Poets & Quants
A New Ranking Of The Top Business Schools
| School | Index | P&Q Rank | Apps per seat | Yield | Pay | Jobs |
| 1. Stanford | 100.0 | 1 | 17.9 | 78.7% | $142,834 | 92.1% |
| 2. Harvard | 91.3 | 2 | 10.2 | 88.8% | $144,750 | 89.4% |
| 3. MIT | 86.2 | 7 | 11.7 | 62.3% | $142,936 | 92.8% |
| 4. Berkeley | 85.3 | 10 | 14.4 | 52.5% | $140,935 | 86.7% |
| 5. Wharton | 82.0 | 4 | 7.1 | 68.0% | $142,574 | 95.6% |
| 6. Columbia | 81.6 | 5 | 7.8 | 70.4% | $139,006 | 91.1% |
| 7. NYU | 79.8 | 10 | 11.3 | 48.7% | $135,933 | 90.4% |
| 8. Chicago | 79.0 | 4 | 7.2 | 59.4% | $137,615 | 97.2% |
| 8. Tuck | 79.0 | 8 | 8.7 | 52.2% | $142,489 | 93.8% |
| 10. UCLA | 78.1 | 14 | 11.7 | 48.2% | $127,535 | 88.6% |
| 11. Kellogg | 77.2 | 6 | 6.7 | 63.9% | $136,357 | 88.6% |
| 12. Foster | 75.9 | 23 | 9.8 | 44.7% | $125,367 | 95.8% |
| 13. Darden | 75.5 | 13 | 8.4 | 45.8% | $136,474 | 93.4% |
| 14. Duke | 75.4 | 9 | 7.8 | 50.9% | $137,154 | 89.8% |
| 15. Yale | 73.9 | 12 | 8.5 | 49.5% | $126,871 | 88.9% |
| 16. Olin | 73.1 | 24 | 12.1 | 30.9% | $111,974 | 96.9% |
| 17. Cornell | 72.8 | 15 | 6.3 | 52.6% | $132,316 | 89.8% |
| 18. Emory | 72.5 | 20 | 7.5 | 43.5% | $128,347 | 94.8% |
| 18. Michigan | 72.5 | 11 | 5.5 | 50.9% | $140,497 | 89.7% |
| 20. Texas | 72.0 | 19 | 7.9 | 44.4% | $126,160 | 91.3% |
| 21. Tepper | 71.4 | 17 | 6.9 | 46.6% | $131,865 | 88.3% |
| 22. Kelley | 68.4 | 20 | 6.6 | 45.6% | $119,581 | 88.1% |
| 23. UNC | 67.6 | 18 | 6.8 | 37.9% | $124,641 | 89.0% |
| 24. Owen | 66.3 | 25 | 5.3 | 44.7% | $113,830 | 90.8% |
| 25. Georgetown | 64.4 | 22 | 6.1 | 34.5% | $118,938 | 88.5% |
Source: Poets & Quants analysis from publicly available data
Read Dean Hubbard’s full essay in Fortune and the How A Dean Would Rank Business Schools article in Poets & Quants.
Learn more about Foster’s current rankings.
