Forbes has released its 2019 rankings of full-time MBA programs in the U.S. and one-year programs internationally. These rankings are based on responses from more than 100 schools and 17,500 alumni around the world. Graduates’ earnings in their first five years after graduation from business school were compared to their opportunity cost, which gave Forbes a five-year MBA gain – the basis for the final rank.
The alumni survey reveals that an MBA from one of the top schools continues to be very valuable, and pays for itself in approximately four years. Alumni from the class of 2014 at the top 25 U.S. programs boosted their salaries from an average of $73,000 before their MBA to $193,000 last year. Salaries have gone up on average 10% each year since graduation.
Top 10 U.S. business schools
| Rank | School | Location | 5-Year MBA Gain | Years to Payback | Pre-MBA Salary | 2018 Salary | Tuition | GMAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicago Booth | Chicago, IL | $94.4K | 3.9 | $83K | $245K | $149K | 730 |
| 2 | Stanford | Palo Alto, C | $90.8K | 4.2 | $86K | $250K | $144K | 732 |
| 3 | Northwestern Kellogg | Evanston, IL | $89.6K | 3.9 | $76K | $215K | $150K | 740 |
| 4 | Harvard Business School | Boston, MA | $86.5K | 4.1 | $88K | $230K | $161K | 730 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania Wharton | Philadelphia, PA | $84.7K | 4.1 | $92K | $230K | $158K | 732 |
| 6 | Dartmouth Tuck | Hanover, NH | $82.7K | 4 | $84K | $233K | $153K | 720 |
| 7 | Columbia Business School | New York, NY | $80.9K | 4.1 | $82K | $230K | $160K | 740 |
| 8 | MIT Sloan | Cambridge, MA | $80.9K | 4.1 | $80K | $215K | $154K | 730 |
| 9 | Cornell Johnson | Ithaca, NY | $78.3K | 4 | $68K | $195K | $142K | 700 |
| 10 | Michigan Ross | Ann Arbor, MI | $78K | 3.9 | $72K | $180K | $140K | 720 |
Top 10 one-year international programs
| Rank | School | Location | 5-Year MBA Gain | Years to Payback | Pre-MBA Salary | 2018 Salary | Tuition | GMAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IMD | Lausanne, Switzerland | $168.9K | 2.7 | $82K | $200K | $85K | 680 |
| 2 | INSEAD | Fountainebleau, France; Singapore | $154.7K | 2.6 | $79K | $195K | $90K | 710 |
| 3 | Cambridge Judge | Cambridge, United Kingdom | $153K | 2.4 | $67K | $183K | $65K | 700 |
| 4 | SDA Bocconi | Milan, Italy | $135.5K | 2.5 | $60K | $165K | $57K | 665 |
| 5 | Oxford Said | Oxford, United Kingdom | $127.3K | 2.8 | $76K | $177K | $71K | 690 |
| 6 | IE Business School | Madrid, Spain | $104.3K | 3.2 | $58K | $149K | $79K | 686 |
| 7 | Indian School of Business | Hyderabad, India | $90.5K | 2.4 | $15K | $62K | $37K | 710 |
| 8 | Warwick | Coventry, United Kingdom | $83.8K | 2.9 | $53K | $139K | $48K | 660 |
| 9 | Mannheim | Mannheim, Germany | $83K | 3 | $51K | $125K | $42K | 680 |
| 10 | ESMT Berlin | Berlin, Germany | $86.2K | 3.4 | $49K | $118K | $49K | 650 |
Do you need help choosing the best business school for you? Get matched with an Accepted advisor today who will guide you through the process of finding, applying to, and getting accepted to the ideal MBA program for you. Explore our MBA Admissions Consulting for more information.
By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted. Linda earned her bachelors and MBA at UCLA, and has been advising applicants since 1994 when she founded Accepted. Linda is the co-founder and first president of AIGAC. She has written or co-authored 13 e-books on the admissions process, and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, Poets & Quants, Bloomberg Businessweek, CBS News, and others. Linda is the host of Admissions Straight Talk, a podcast for graduate school applicants. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
Related Resources:
• Navigate the MBA Application Maze: 9 Tips to Acceptance, a free guide
• A Conversation About Today’s MBA Marketplace, a podcast episode
• Do MBA Rankings Matter?