Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business, meanwhile, sidled up a spot to join the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in third place this year. And MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business tied for fifth place.

Rounding out the top ten this year were Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Columbia Business School and Yale School of Management. 

To compile its rankings, U.S. News surveyed all 426 master’s programs in business accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International in fall 2008 and early 2009. Data provided by the schools was used to calculate rankings based on a weighted average of a range of indicators, including program quality as assessed by the deans and directors of peer schools as well as recruiters, graduate placement success and student selectivity.

The U.S. News rankings also feature specialty rankings, which are based on ratings by business school deans and directors asked to nominate the top 10 programs for excellence in each accounting, entrepreneurship, executive MBA, finance, information systems, international, management, marketing, nonprofit, part-time MBA, production/operations and supply chain/logistics.

Tops in this year’s specialty rankings were as follow:

–Accounting: McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin
–Entrepreneurship: F.W. Olin School of Business at Babson College 
–Executive MBA: Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
–Finance: University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School
–Information Systems: MIT’s Sloan School of Management
–International: Thunderbird School of Global Management
–Management: Harvard Business School
–Marketing: Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
–Nonprofit: Yale School of Management
–Part-time MBA: New York University’s Stern School of Business
–Production/Operations: MIT’s Sloan School of Management
–Supply Chain/Logistics: MIT’s Sloan School of Management

As always, we encourage prospective applicants to view these and other rankings as but one in a range of factors to consider when trying to determine which business school program best fits your individual needs and goals.

To view the entire U.S. News & World Report rankings, click here.