7 Things You Need to Know About the 2017 U.S. News Business School Ranking

Harvard Business School (HBS) reclaimed the number one spot in this year’s U.S. News & World Report ranking of the nation’s best MBA programs after a two-year stint in second place. Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), which has passed the crown back and forth with HBS for more than a decade, took second this year, tying with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

In addition to the subtle movements of programs rising or losing a rank, there were quite a few surprises in this year’s list. The Clear Admit team of admissions experts has sifted through the data and compiled a summary of seven key things to note this year:

1. NYU Stern Backslides to 20, Gets Scolded by U.S. News

The most shocking adjustment from 2016 in terms of rank for an individual school was without a doubt NYU Stern, which fell from the number 11 spot to number 20 this year. At first glance, it’s hard to even imagine how this might happen. Luckily, Bob Morse of U.S. News was kind enough to publish a post explaining what caused this traditionally top-15 school to slide so precipitously.

Morse explained that the reason for NYU Stern’s sharp decline was due to the fact that it did not submit its GMAT/GRE scores on time. “[NYU] did not submit its data for the number of new entrants to both its full-time and part-time MBA programs who provided GMAT scores,” he wrote. As a result, U.S. News could not compute the school’s average standardized test scores.

Morse also states that while Stern did provide the “omitted data points” later on, U.S. News would not consider recalculating the scores, because… late is late.

While Morse’s blog post certainly possesses a whiff of passive aggression making one wonder if the drop in rankings wasn’t more of a wrist slap, Stern’s inability to provide information by a deadline that every other school managed to meet does potentially raise questions about its administrative competence.

That said, the drop of nine spots on the list does seem harsh and, more importantly, incorrect. Stay tuned to see whether or not this will damage the reputation of either U.S. News or NYU Stern (or both).

2. Booth Leapfrogs Wharton

While a single position adjustment is no cause for alarm or debate about the difference in a program’s worth, it marks the first time Booth has ever outranked Wharton (although the two did tie in 2011 for fifth) and is also the first time the Chicago school has secured a top-three spot in the history of the U.S. News rankings.

As to the rationale behind the program’s movements on the list, Chicago Booth’s climbing GMAT average (726) and high employment numbers certainly played a part. Furthermore, over the past few years Wharton has been experiencing a mild slump on several rankings lists (most notably, Financial Times and BusinessWeek).

Part of the problem may be rooted in Wharton’s Admissions Office and process — which can have a profound impact on a school’s brand. In recent years, the school has experienced a high turnover of admissions directors. Also, its reputation of having one of the most applicant-friendly admissions processes has waned among potential students as well as alumni who are no longer called upon to interview applicants.

3. Yale SOM: Is Dean Snyder the ‘Rankings Whisperer?’

For the first time since 2013, Yale School of Management (SOM) has ranked in the top ten, taking the number eight spot — its highest rank ever. The jump to number eight from last year’s 13 spot is substantial, though not all that surprising upon inspection.

Yale has been making improvements on several fronts. In 2011, the school hired Dean Edward Snyder — the very same dean who sat at the helm of Chicago Booth during its meteoric rise in the rankings in the early 2000s. In addition, Yale has been poaching high-profile faculty from other schools over the last decade; notably: Andrew Metrick, professor of finance and Anjani Jain, current assistant dean. Both were previously at Wharton.

Yale has also achieved major progress with its facilities, completing the new Edwards P. Evans Hall in 2014.

One more possible factor in Yale’s rise is its traditional strength and reputation as a leader in the non-profit and corporate responsibility areas, which are in vogue with millennials.

4. Columbia Dips Two Spots

Columbia Business School (CBS) dropped to ten from the number eight spot, where it had sat since 2012. Whether the rising cost of living in New York or the declining interest among applicants in the financial sector affected any of the statistics used in determining the rankings is no more than conjecture.

CBS is one of the few schools in the top 10 that hasn’t recently unveiled a new building or substantially expanded its facilities, which could be a liability. Construction is underway for an impressive newManhattanville campus, slated to open in 2018.

The most likely cause for CBS’s slip is the advancement of other schools, such as Yale and Tuck.

5. 2017: The Year of the Tie?

Aside from the cases discussed above, the top ten, as well as the spots 11 through 20, as a whole remained stable. Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management moved up two spots from 16 to 14. UNC’s Kenan-Flagler did the same, moving up from 18 to 16. Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School also jumped from 20 to 18.

Noticeable in this year’s top ten was the number of ties. There were three: Stanford and Booth for second place; MIT Sloan andKellogg for fifth; and Tuck and Yale for eighth. This alludes to how evenly matched these school’s programs are to one another and how difficult it is for one school to stand out among the MBA pack leaders.

6. It’s Time to Get Global!

Fifteen or 20 years ago, the notion of a top MBA program existing outside of the United States was a relatively novel idea –- after all, the U.S. had invented the degree and was an unparalleled force in the global business world. Today, it is safe to say that this is no longer the case. There are now several MBA programs abroad that can easily be viewed as peers of the top U.S. programs, most notably, INSEAD and London Business School.

With U.S. programs stressing the benefits of traveling abroad, globalization, and the importance of being a global citizen, it is probably time that U.S. News follows this advice and breaks free from its U.S. centric rankings.

Foreign MBA programs are indeed part of many applicant’s discussions when considering where to apply and they should also be part of the U.S. News rankings.

7. A Flaw in the Methodology?

While Stanford’s drop into the number two spot and its tie with Chicago Booth could be cause for concern in Palo Alto, the reality is that the shift likely reflects a potential flaw in the rankings. Because Stanford leads the trend of students going into tech and entrepreneurship rather than traditional consulting and banking fields, the school is in essence penalized by U.S. Newsmethodology, which relies on ‘grades’ from corporate recruiters and other employment stats that favor larger firms over startups or entrepreneurial pursuits.