USNews MBA rankings are on crack

For those of you, who have not had the displeasure of reading the 2021 MBA "rankings", here they are.

Biggest think that sticks out? Harvard is #6!

Berkeley is ranked above Colombia and NYU.

Side question: What do you guys think of UT Austin's ranking? Their placements (for PE) are much better than you might think. Granted, I imagine a lot of their recruiting for PE is focused on LMM, but it seems like their venture fellows place fairly well.

Rankings: Best Business Schools (MBA) Ranked in 2021 - US News Rankings

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US News is still more reputable than other rankings. I wouldn't pay too much attention to y/y volatility like Harvard being ranked #6; HBS will probably be top 3 next ranking, in-line with historical rankings

Haas/Tuck have historically been considered to be the strongest schools outside the top 7; For the 10th spot, you could probably make a strong argument for several schools, including NYU 

UT is a solid program; I've seen some people place into Texas PE and for IB, the school places well into BB/EB energy groups. If you want to live in Texas, UT is likely a better choice than other T10/T15 programs, but in terms of overall MBA rankings, I'm not sure UT should rank ahead of other T15 programs such as Cornell/UCLA/Ross/Darden. 

 

Generally agree with your comment although I wouldn’t say Tuck is the best of the rest anymore. They haven’t been doing too hot in recent years while other schools like Yale and NYU have been improving 

 

I think the reason why you get results like Harvard being #6 is because they have to use some sort of objective criteria that takes precedent over subjective perceived prestige. Everyone knows Harvard isn’t that far down, but some other school probably had a marginally higher graduation rate or employment % or something. The general bracket a school is in is more accurate than the exact placement.

 

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