by Kelly Wilson
U.S. News & World Report 2026 MBA Rankings [Full-Time & Part-Time]
Not surprisingly, the top ten full-time MBA programs in the U.S. News & World Report rankings have once again shifted positions. The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) moved up to capture the #1 spot this year, replacing The Wharton School, which now stands at #2. Chicago Booth climbed to #3, while Harvard Business School (HBS) and Northwestern Kellogg are tied at #4. MIT Sloan dropped one spot to #6, while Columbia Business School (CBS) and NYU Stern tied for #7. Dartmouth Tuck dropped from #6 to #9, and Berkeley Haas rounds out the list in the #10 spot.
U.S. News’ metrics continue to encompass career placement success (50%), quality assessment by deans/directors and corporate recruiters/company contacts (25%), and selectivity (25%). The ranking maintains its composition of career-related factors for career placement success. Subcategories of this section of the survey include salary by profession (10%), which compares salaries by industry and acknowledges that varying pay scales exist for different occupations; the employment rate at graduation (7%); the employment rate three months after graduation (13%); and mean starting salary and bonus (20%). U.S. News collected scores for both the traditional and new versions of the GMAT. It used percentiles as components for the selectivity analysis, along with GRE scores, GPAs (undergraduate), and acceptance rates.
Regardless of the outcomes or the changes in methodology, applicants, students, and alumni continue to study the rankings insatiably. Interestingly, U.S. News encourages prospective students to consider factors beyond the rankings, including “location, campus culture, strength of specific programs, and cost after tuition and financial aid.” We encourage you to do the same and have created a free guide to help you do so.
U.S. News received responses to its 2026 survey request from 333 U.S. universities accredited by AACSB International. The publication then ranked the 134 full-time, in-person, and hybrid programs that had submitted sufficient data. It’s worth noting that U.S. News largely adheres to the data-reporting standards set by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and the MBA Career Services and Employer Alliance (MBACSEA). GMAC’s GME Admissions Reporting Standards and the MBACSEA’s are publicly available.
Notable Changes This Year
- The Stanford GSB claimed the top spot after tying with The Wharton School last year. The California-based program boasts an overall starting salary and bonus (two-year average) of $206,157 this year, leading the top ten for the highest total compensation. However, the school reported a three-month placement rate (two-year average) of 80.3%, which was the lowest among the top-ten schools (next lowest was HBS, with 80.4%). The median GMAT score at the Stanford GSB increased by five points to 745 (old scale), lagging NYU Stern’s reported median score of 750 (old scale). The median GMAT Focus score at the GSB is 695, which is equal to that at CBS and ties for the highest among all programs. The median GPA at the GSB is 3.8 (tied with Northwestern Kellogg).
- The Wharton School stands alone in the #2 spot this year. Its students reported the second-highest starting salary and bonus (two-year average) at $201,902, slightly ahead of NYU Stern’s reported $201,106. Wharton’s three-month placement rate (87.6% ) is just slightly lower than those of CBS (88.4%) and Dartmouth Tuck (87.7%). The GSB’s acceptance rate is the lowest among the programs in the top ten of the rankings, at just 6.8%, well ahead of the next lowest of 11.2% at HBS.
- The median GMAT at Wharton, Chicago Booth, and CBS is 740, just behind the reported median scores at the Stanford GSB and NYU Stern (745 and 750, respectively). The median GPA at Wharton (3.7) is slightly lower than the 3.8 at both the Stanford GSB and Northwestern Kellogg but equal to the median GPA at Chicago Booth, MIT Sloan, CBS, NYU Stern, and Berkeley Haas.
- Last year, Northwestern Kellogg and the Stanford GSB were both ranked #2, but this year, Kellogg shares the #4 spot with HBS, which rose from #6. Berkeley Haas entered the top ten this year at 10th, after being ranked 11th last year.
- Some well-known programs that moved into the top 25 this year are UNC Kenan-Flagler at #21 (tied with Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business), the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California at #25 (tied with the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia), and Emory Goizueta at #23 (tied with the University of Texas at Dallas, which moved up eight spots).
The U.S. News ranking of part-time MBA programs remained relatively static this year. Northwestern Kellogg and Berkeley Haas remained tied at #1, while Chicago Booth slipped to #3, where it is tied with NYU Stern. The rest of the top ten is made up of the same schools from last year, which either maintained their former ranking or shifted one place up or down.
The part-time rankings were based on survey responses from which 245 schools qualified for the 2026 ranking. Ranking factors included peer assessment (50%), part-time student ratio (12.5%), part-time students total (12.5%), GMAT/GRE scores (10%), undergraduate grade point average (10%), and work experience (5%).
U.S. News 2026 Top Ten Full-Time MBA Programs
| School | Location | 2026 | 2025 |
| Stanford University | Stanford, CA | 1 | 2 (tie) |
| University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | Philadelphia, PA | 2 | 1 |
| University of Chicago (Booth) | Chicago, IL | 3 | 4 |
| Harvard University | Allston, MA | 4 (tied) | 6 (tie) |
| Northwestern (Kellogg) | Evanston, IL | 4 (tied) | 2 (tie) |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) | Cambridge, MA | 6 | 5 |
| Columbia University | New York, NY | 7 (tied) | 9 |
| New York University (Stern) | New York, NY | 7 (tied) | 6 (tie) |
| Dartmouth College (Tuck) | Hanover, NH | 9 | 6 (tie) |
| University of California, Berkeley (Haas) | Berkeley, CA | 10 | 11 (tie) |
U.S. News 2025 Top 10 Part-Time MBA Programs
| School | Location | 2026 | 2025 |
| Northwestern University (Kellogg) | Evanston, IL | 1 (tie) | 1 (tie) |
| University of California, Berkeley (Haas) | Berkeley, CA | 1 (tie) | 1 (tie) |
| New York University (Stern) | New York, NY | 3 (tie) | 4 |
| University of Chicago (Booth) | Chicago, IL | 3 (tie) | 1 (tie) |
| University of California, Los Angeles (Anderson) | Los Angeles, CA | 5 | 5 |
| University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Ross) | Ann Arbor, MI | 6 (tie) | 7 |
| University of Texas, Austin (McCombs) | Austin, TX | 6 (tie) | 6 |
| Ohio State University (Fisher) | Columbus, OH | 8 | 8 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller) | Atlanta, GA | 9 | 10 (tie) |
| University of Southern California (Marshall) | Los Angeles, CA | 10 | 9 |
Hoping to start business school in 2026 at one of these top-ranked programs? Sign up for a free consultation, and be sure to check out our MBA Admissions Consulting Services and work one-on-one with an expert consultant to create an application that will get you accepted!
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