It’s been a good year at Poets&Quants. In 2017 we broke major news and hit major milestones in site traffic, here and at our undergraduate business school site, Poets&Quants for Undergrads, which recently published its second annual in-house ranking of BBA programs. At P&Q, in the last month alone we’ve published two new rankings, pieces naming our top dean and program, and a compilation of editors’ picks of favorite stories from the wealth of journalism we published in 2017.
Our top stories from the year that’s about to expire include pieces on the most reputable rankings — U.S. News & World Report, Financial Times, our own — and forecasts of schools, and MBAs, to watch in the future. We calculated and compiled data from far and wide for stories on GMAT and GRE scores, acceptance rates, job placement statistics, and much more. And of course we told the stories of MBAs, professors, deans, and others that inspire, amuse, and spur to action our readers. In short, we cover business education like no other site — the best, and for many the only, source for news on MBA and specialized master’s programs.
As they have since we launched in 2010, readers responded. Eleven stories this year eclipsed the 100,000 page view mark. Cumulatively, our top 10 stories of the year easily surpass the 1 million mark.
Thanks, P&Q readers! Without further ado, the stories you liked the most from 2017:
1. Surprises In U.S. News’ 2017 Ranking
There’s a big surprise in the 2017 U.S. News MBA ranking out today (March 14).
For only the second time in 28 years, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School fought its way into a tie for first place with Harvard Business School. To capture the top prize, Wharton had to rise three places, jumping over both Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
The last time Wharton shared first in the U.S. News survey was three years ago when the Philadelphia-based school was in a three-way tie with HBS and Stanford. Wharton administrators have to be breathing a sigh of relief after Booth, building on years of momentum, surpassed the school on the U.S. News list last year for the very first time.
2. 10 B-Schools To Watch In 2017
Psst … The word is out. Pass it along.
Think MBA education revolves around Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton? That’s natural. The troika has been perched atop many business school rankings for decades. They boast big-name alumni and faculty, fat endowments, and brand names that transcend culture, generation, and academic background. Despite their prominence, you couldn’t help but notice a subtle shift in 2016.
Look no further than the rankings. In Bloomberg Businessweek, Fuqua broke into the top three ahead of Wharton. Booth tied Stanford for second according to U.S. News & World Report. The biggest shock of them all? INSEAD leapfrogged the “Big Three” to rank first in the Financial Times ranking.
3. INSEAD Repeats As No. 1 In New Financial Times Ranking
The Financial Times began ranking full-time MBA programs in 1999, offering what was then a novel global take on business education. For 17 straight years, the top of the British newspaper’s ranking was dominated by the likes of Wharton, Harvard, Stanford and home town favorite London Business School.
Then, INSEAD cracked the code, finishing first last year. Now the institution that bills itself “the business school for the world,” has done it again in the FT’s 2017 global MBA ranking. For the second consecutive year, the FT today (Jan. 30) named INSEAD’s accelerated 10-month program the No. 1 MBA experience in the world. Claiming this year’s top spot shows that INSEAD’s emergence is no one-time fluke in a highly influential ranking that is closely watched in Europe and Asia (see What INSEAD’s Repeat FT Win Means For The School).
4. Wharton Dislodges Harvard To Top 2017 P&Q MBA Ranking
What a difference a year can make.
Little more than a year ago at a crowded town hall meeting on the Wharton campus, Dean Geoffrey Garrett found himself addressing the concerns of Wharton MBA students who peppered him with questions on a number of thorny issues. Among all their worries, one especially loomed large: The school’s deteriorating performance in rankings.
Ever since Aussie Dean Garrett’s arrival in July of 2014, the school has lost ground in every major ranking with only one exception: the Financial Times where it eked out a one-place gain. Even more disturbing for Whartonites, Chicago Booth has outranked the school on six of the past eight Poets&Quants’ lists, giving rise to conversations that a new Big Three has emerged with Harvard, Stanford and Booth in that category. Last year, the Poets&Quants’ composite ranking saw Wharton tied for fourth place with Kellogg.
(Go to the next page for the P&Q stories that ranked No. 5 through No 10 in 2017.)
Just a few members of the Class of 2019 at leading business schools
5. The Pioneering MBAs In The Class Of 2019
Vishruti Jakhar is nicknamed the “mountain goat” — and she considers it a compliment. It is a testament to her sure-footed resilience. A mountain climber, Jakhar has scaled 20,000 foot peaks, with her adventures taking her from Ethiopian lava lakes to Himalayan passes. In the process, she has endured 15 hour days covering 7,000 feet, capped by burnt shoes and even hypothermia.
Such conditions prepared Jakhar well for her job: a deep oil and gas driller. Before joining Rice University’s full-time MBA program, she would spend 28 straight days on an oil rig. Of course, the isolation was the easy part. For Jakhar, the true struggle was being “a pioneer female” on many drill ships. In the end, Jakhar conquered these mountains too, relying on the virtues she practiced during unforgiving climbs at Kedarkantha or Panpatia Col: patience, optimism, and courage.
6. Average GMAT Scores At The Leading MBA Programs
Just when you thought GMAT scores couldn’t possibly go any higher, guess what? At many of the the leading business schools, average scores for the latest incoming classes have set new records—yet again.
A Poets&Quants analysis of scores for the MBA cohorts that began their first year in the fall of last year shows that 16 of the Top 25 U.S. schools achieved year-over-year increases in their GMAT averages. Only five schools—NYU Stern, Duke Fuqua, UNC Keenan-Flagler, Carnegie Mellon Tepper and Wharton—registered declines, with three programs falling by two or fewer points.
7. Best & Brightest MBAs: Class of 2017
London Business School’s Alana Digby
Business school can be a time to stretch your boundaries. No one knows this better than London Business School’s Alana Digby. As a first year, she juggled a full load of classes, along with serving as a peer leader and student ambassador. Behind the scenes, the Strategy& consultant was preparing for something even bigger: She planned to swim solo across the English Channel.
That’s no easy task. The legendary 21-mile trek from the White Cliffs of Dover to the golden beaches of Cap Gris Nez is considered the ultimate test of physical and mental endurance. A bustling shipping lane, the channel boasts 50-degree waters and thick fogs, not to mention fierce winds, dicey waves, and unforgiving tides that can yank swimmers miles off course. Beyond powering through these conditions, swimmers must also contend with fatigue and boredom, which often trigger that inner voice urging them to give up and climb onto the boat…like so many others.
8. Kellogg Topples Booth To Capture First in 2017 Economist Ranking
For Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Dean Sally Blount, it couldn’t have happened at a better time. After being dean of the school for seven years, she opened the doors to a new $250 million Global Hub on the shores of Lake Michigan. Now, for the first time under her watch, Blount can claim a number one ranking for the school’s prestige MBA program–seven months before she steps down from her job at the end of the 2017-2018 academic year.
Kellogg toppled Chicago Booth to capture first place in the new global ranking from The Economist today (Oct. 26), nudging aside its arch-rival Booth which had held the top title in the ranking for five consecutive years. Though Kellogg only had to gain one place to knock out Booth this year, it’s No. 1 status caps a long, upward climb in this topsy-turvy, unpredictable ranking. In the past five years, Kellogg went from finishing 23rd in 2013, to 14th the following year, to seventh in 2016, and to second place last year before finally emerging the big winner.
9. Ranking B-Schools By Specialization
Close your eyes. Ask yourself this question: What words come to mind when you hear Wharton?
Chances are, CFO or banker flashed across your mind. No surprise: Wharton has been a synonym for finance for generations. How about Ivy League? That’s a fact, even if it can be a dog whistle for privilege. Of course, there is always runner up, as in Wharton plays the Quaker Coyote to Harvard’s Road Runner.
Sound about right? Maybe if you chummed around with John Sculley or Robert Crandall! These days, Wharton has emerged as a leader in high tech and entrepreneurship, as connected to Sand Hill Road as Wall Street. You’ll find as many hip hop lyricists as blue blood elites in Huntsman Hall, where liberal arts majors outnumber quant jocks by a near two-to-one margin and women nearly equal the men. Wharton student arrive in Philly with higher GMATs than their Charles River rivals — and leave with higher starting paychecks too. If the original Generation Y — Yuppies — wanted to earn their first million by 30, Wharton Millennials are hell bent on making a social impact by the same age.
10. Acceptance Rates At The Top 50 Programs
When you look at a person’s chances of getting into a highly ranked MBA program these days, it’s pretty much a tale of two tiers. At the top 25 ranked U.S. business schools, it has become a greater challenge to get an admit. At the next 25 schools that fill out the top 5o list, it’s a bit easier.
Some 15 of the top 25 schools last year had lower acceptance rates than a year-earlier, with significantly tougher admission standards at MIT Sloan, Cornell Johnson, UC-Berkeley Haas, the University of Texas’ McCombs, and Duke Fuqua. Even among top 25 schools that saw fewer applicants, the declines were generally modest, with not a single school reporting a double-digit drop.
OTHER TOP READS
Stanford Misled MBAs On Financial Aid
The M7, Elite Of The Elite, By The Numbers
The Ding Report: Who Was Rejected & Why
Wharton Grad Brings Down The House
Best Companies For MBA Work-Life Balance
DON’T MISS 2017 EDITORS’ PICKS OF OUR FAVORITES and PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: THE HIGHLY INNOVATIVE CORNELL TECH MBA
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