By Nathaniel Luce
As the holiday season approaches, we close out another year of rankings with an autumn flurry of rankings. Last month, the Vanderbilt MBA climbed to #23 globally (#18 among US schools) in the Economist’s annual “Which MBA?” rankings – our highest global ranking in any major survey (with our career management center getting a special shout out at #6 globally). This ranking is based primarily on the satisfaction and success of current students and recent alumni. In another global publication, our Executive MBA programs placed #20 among US-only programs in Financial Times. Again, the Vanderbilt Master of Accountancy (MAcc) and Master of Science in Finance (MSF) programs were ranked #1 and #3 respectively in the 2018 TFE Times.
In a five-year look at alumni careers, the Forbes ROI study (based on 2012 alumni) showed a Vanderbilt MBA pay-back period of 4.2 years and ranked our MBA at #49 in its ROI metric. Likewise, based on surveys of alumni (years 2008-2010), recent students, and recruiters, Bloomberg BusinessWeek ranked the MBA at #34. The Poets & Quants website publishes a composite ranking based on five rankings including Forbes and BusinessWeek, placed Vanderbilt at #33. With our substantial progress in key areas like placement, starting salaries, scholarship support, and student satisfaction over the past five years, we have high hopes for future improvement in these particular rankings.
As in past years, Princeton Review raved about the Owen faculty (#5 for Best Professors) and called out our success in specialty areas like Human Resources (#5).
Earlier this spring, U.S. News and World Report placed Owen at No. 25 in their ranking of full-time MBA programs. That represented a first for the school of two consecutive years inside the top 25 in that particular ranking.
These are just a few of the rankings from year, with several more on the horizon for the winter and spring. As always, we study and learn from these rankings, looking for ways to improve our program. But while these provide useful data, none reflects the unique personal-scale experience that attracts students to Owen and establishes a foundation for long-term career success and satisfaction (see my blog post on career success).
Beyond the ups and downs of any individual ranking, I am most excited about our improvement in the fundamentals—bringing together a diverse group of talented students and placing them in high-paying careers at increasingly higher rates. Our faculty is growing larger, stronger and more diverse, creating more impact for the school. I am proud of what we are accomplishing as we focus on our strategy to deliver world-class business education on a personal-scale.
