As I have been doing since 2008, I wanted to provide my Global Top 100 MBA Rankings for 2012. The rankings below should hopefully be of value for both those engaged in initial school application selection and for admitted applicants who have been accepted to multiple programs and need to determine where to go. Programs are ranked in many ways, so certainly look at other rankings lists. There is no one objective measure of an MBA programs' value and no ranking that can account for an individual student's positive or negative return on their investment of time and money for a graduate business education.
“Methodology”: All FT "Global MBA Rankings 2012" Data was ranked in order of “ Weight Salary ($).” No other methods were employed.
Justification #1: Whatever they pay you when you graduate is the market value of your degree, all other factors are mere conjecture.
Justification #2: One may very well value an MBA beyond mere salary calculations, but salary will certainly be a factor for almost everyone.
Justification #3: Since each school reports its own data, assuming that data is good, the ranking is based on objective criteria that all programs have in common.
Disclaimer #1: I could use some other accumulation of salaries for this same purpose, but FT's list is global, so I decided to use it. If your school is not included on this list of the top 100, please don’t be offended. If FT ranked more programs, so would I.
Disclaimer #2: Actual market value will very much depend on your situation. The numbers below are only averages.
Disclaimer #3: Salary is but one measure of ROI. This survey does not account for relative increase in salary, opportunity costs, or other less tangible, but important factors.
Disclaimer #4: These rankings in no way measure the value of the educational experience at any of these programs, merely the likely post-MBA salary outcome.
School Selection Strategy for Those Admitted to Multiple Programs: Go to the highest salary ranked program if you want to obtain the most market value.
School Application Selection Strategy Based on Salary Approach: Simply compare salaries to rates of admission which are available for all US programs listed in BusinessWeek and US News and World Report and for some non-US programs.
1. Apply to the highest ranked programs you think you can get it into.
2. Find bargains: Schools with a high salary and a high rate of admission.
3. Avoid application to schools with a relatively low admissions rates and lower salaries.
4. Caveat emptor. Don't assume schools are necessarily reporting data with 100% accuracy.
School Selection Strategy for Those Considering Staying Local versus Going for a Globally Recognized Brand: If you are deciding between going to your local MBA program instead of moving to a new city and/or country, look closely at the expected post-MBA salary rates to determine which programs are worth moving for.
1. If you are planning on studying in the US and/or Europe and are a non-resident, assume the real possibility, based on present economic circumstances, that you will likely need to return to your home country because of tightened visa restrictions and limited job opportunities.
2. If your objective is stay in your present locality, closely scrutinize whether the higher-ranked, but non-local option will actually prove to be of significant benefit to you in the future. For example, an MBA alumni network that consists of a large number of local graduates may be worth significantly more to you than association with a prestigious internationally brand.
3. If your professional objectives are global, you will likely benefit much more from an MBA with global brand value rather than a program with local brand value even if the post-MBA salaries are not significantly different.
The Top 100 Global MBA Programs
(Detailed table in JPEG format follows. Getting Blogger to make a nice table is beyond me!)
Rank School Name Weighted salary (US$)
1 Stanford Graduate School of Business 192179
2 Harvard Business School 178249
3 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) 175076
4 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton 172353
5 Columbia Business School 166497
6 MIT: Sloan 157337
7 IE Business School 156658
8 London Business School 152981
9 University of Chicago: Booth 152585
10 Dartmouth College: Tuck 151182
11 University of California at Berkeley: Haas 146811
12 Northwestern University: Kellogg 145834
13 INSEAD 144355
14 IMD 144045
15 Yale School of Management 142455
16 Cornell University: Johnson 141727
17 University of Cape Town GSB 141490
18 Duke University: Fuqua 139405
19 UCLA: Anderson 136331
20 University of Virginia: Darden 134936
21 University of Oxford: Saïd 134805
22 New York University: Stern 134093
23 IESE Business School 133888
24 University of Cambridge: Judge 132758
25 Carnegie Mellon: Tepper 132325
26 University of Michigan: Ross 129649
27 Indian School of Business 129512
28 Hong Kong UST Business School 127600
29 Cranfield School of Management 125196
30 Emory University: Goizueta 124832
31 Georgetown University: McDonough 123290
32 CEIBS 123058
33 University of Texas at Austin: McComb 121170
34 HEC Paris 121061
35 University of Southern California: Marshall 121060
36 University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler 118959
37 Australian School of Business: AGSM 118943
38 Rice University: Jones 118617
39 Warwick Business School 118151
40 Manchester Business School 117016
41 Esade Business School 114988
42 Vanderbilt University: Owen 114265
43 Indiana University: Kelley 113217
44 University of Rochester: Simon 112992
45 City University: Cass 111552
46 Melbourne Business School 110701
47 Georgia Institute of Technology 110118
48 Coppead 110103
49 Boston College: Carroll 109440
50 University of Maryland: Smith 109375
51 Pennsylvania State University: Smeal 109114
52 University of Washington: Foster 109088
53 University of Minnesota: Carlson 108994
54 Wisconsin School of Business 108990
55 Wake Forest University: Babcock 108737
56 Texas A&M University: Mays 108606
57 Boston University School of Management 106762
58 University of Hong Kong 106720
59 Washington University: Olin 106668
60 Babson College: Olin 106506
61 University of Notre Dame: Mendoza 106171
62 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 105726
63 Ohio State University: Fisher 105426
64 George Washington University 104814
65 Imperial College Business School 104619
66 Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University 103628
67 Purdue University: Krannert 103304
68 SDA Bocconi 102854
69 Nanyang Business School 102350
70 University College Dublin: Smurfit 102026
71 SMU: Cox 101286
72 Brigham Young University: Marriott 101189
73 Thunderbird School of Global Management 100803
74 Sungkyunkwan University SKK GSB 100779
75 University of Western Ontario: Ivey 100738
76 Hult International Business School 100631
77 Chinese University of Hong Kong 100408
78 University of California at Irvine: Merage 99333
79 Michigan State University: Broad 98784
80 University of Edinburgh Business School 97733
81 National University of Singapore School of Business 97625
82 Lancaster University Management School 97124
83 Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School 94661
84 University of Toronto: Rotman 94255
85 Northeastern University 93824
86 University of South Carolina: Moore 93053
87 University of Iowa: Tippie 92978
88 Durham Business School 91718
89 Universität St.Gallen 91106
90 Ipade 90900
91 McGill University: Desautels 89623
92 University of Pittsburgh: Katz 88783
93 York University: Schulich 88283
94 Birmingham Business School 87274
95 Bradford University School of Management 87228
96 Incae Business School 84411
97 Aston Business School 83286
98 University of British Columbia: Sauder 80898
99 Peking University: Guanghua 79914
100 SP Jain Center of Management 79809
Detailed Table Including FT Ranking Data
One advantage of a salary-based list of programs worldwide is that it helps to see the rising global market value of MBA programs. It also means that those of us who help applicants considering worldwide application, start to pay more attention to such national leaders and not just to dominant US and European programs.
For those with a US MBA bias, this ranking should be humbling because so many of what are usually ranked quite highly in the US, don't, at least at the salary level, look as attractive as rankings might suggest.
From a school selection perspective, I think looking at the stark reality of the expected financial outcome is critical. Looking at this solely helps to put the outcome into focus. "The 100" is only one possible way of doing this.
I am well aware that applicants don't simply make selection choices on the basis of salary, but I think evaluating programs on this basis is one important consideration.
Finally, I would like to thank "my team" at FT for doing all of the hard work. They have this nifty way of generating excel documents that really reduced my work by hours.
-Adam Markus
I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.
