The Financial Times had just released its Global MBA Rankings for 2025, and to say there are some shocks would be an understatement. The stalwarts of the game have fallen. Harvard Business School does not find a place in the top 10. Stanford GSB does not even feature among the top 100.
Other than these, there are big changes in the positions of other business schools that have enjoyed top rankings earlier. What’s the reason?
The economical upheaval has been among the top reasons for the big shifts, but that’s not the only reason.
For Harvard, the reason is clear. The fact that over 20 percent of the MBA students at HBS were not able to find jobs worked against it. It is now ranked at number 13.
What happened to Stanford, the school that has the toughest selectivity among all schools considered for the ranking? The reason for its disappearance can be linked to the fact that there weren’t enough Stanford GSB alums to respond to the publications survey. Financial Times expects at least a 20% response rate from alumni.
Wharton faced a similar penalty a couple of years ago when it was knocked out of the top 100 ranking due to the same reason – not enough responses to the ranking survey. Wharton got its act together this time, and has been rewarded for it. It ranks at number 1 in the latest MBA ranking (retaining its position from last year), followed by Columbia Business School and IESE. INSEAD and SDA Bocconi share the 4th spot.
Another interesting trend is that US programs do not dominate the top 10 as they once used to. In fact, only 4 schools make the list this year – MIT Sloan and Kellogg being the other two, in addition to Wharton and CBS.
How did Indian schools perform in the ranking? Quite well actually, considering the tough jobs market. ISB has jumped up 4 ranks, while IIMA has improved by 10.
The 8 that made the list this year are: ISB (27), IIM Ahmedabad (31), IIM Bangalore (57), IIM Calcutta (61), IIM Indore (69), IIM Lucknow (71), XLRI (83), IIM Kozhikode (89)
Top 100 MBA programs in the world
| Rank | School | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wharton | US |
| 2 | Columbia Business School | US |
| 3 | IESE Business School | Spain |
| 4 | Insead | France |
| 4 | SDA Bocconi | Italy |
| 6 | MIT Sloan | US |
| 7 | London Business School | UK |
| 8 | ESADE | Spain |
| 9 | HEC Paris | France |
| 10 | Kellogg | US |
| 11 | Duke Fuqua | US |
| 12 | Ceibs | China |
| 13 | Harvard Business School | US |
| 13 | Cornell Johnson | US |
| 15 | Berkeley Haas | US |
| 15 | Shanghai University of Finance and Economics | China |
| 17 | Chicago Booth | US |
| 18 | IE Business School | Spain |
| 19 | UCLA Anderson | US |
| 20 | Dartmouth Tuck | US |
| 20 | Virginia Darden | US |
| 22 | IMD | Switzerland |
| 22 | Nanyang Business School | Singapore |
| 24 | Yale SoM | US |
| 25 | Peking Guanghua | China |
| 26 | Oxford Saïd | UK |
| 27 | Indian School of Business | India |
| 28 | ESCP | France |
| 29 | Michigan Ross | US |
| 30 | Fudan | China |
| 31 | NYU Stern | US |
| 31 | IIM Ahmedabad | India |
| 31 | Tongji University | China |
| 34 | Washington Foster | US |
| 35 | Cambridge Judge | UK |
| 36 | HKUST | Hong Kong |
| 37 | NUS | Singapore |
| 38 | Imperial College | UK |
| 39 | Rice Jones | US |
| 39 | UT Austin McCombs | US |
| 41 | HKU | Hong Kong |
| 42 | Washington Olin | US |
| 43 | Georgetown McDonough | US |
| 44 | EMLyon | France |
| 45 | Emory University: Goizueta | US |
| 46 | Alliance Manchester | UK |
| 47 | Essec | France |
| 48 | Florida Warrington | US |
| 49 | CMU Tepper | US |
| 50 | USC Marshall | US |
| 51 | UNC Kenan-Flagler | US |
| 52 | Vanderbilt Owen | US |
| 53 | UC Irvine Merage | US |
| 54 | University of Texas at Dallas: Jindal | US |
| 55 | Georgia Terry | US |
| 56 | Rotterdam Erasmus | Netherlands |
| 57 | IIM Bangalore | India |
| 58 | Georgia Tech Scheller | US |
| 59 | ASU WP Carey | US |
| 60 | Rochester Simon | US |
| 61 | IIM Calcutta | India |
| 62 | Warwick | UK |
| 63 | St Gallen | Switzerland |
| 64 | Edhec | France |
| 65 | CUHK | Hong Kong |
| 66 | WHU Otto Beisheim | Germany |
| 67 | Bayes (formerly Cass) | UK |
| 67 | AGSM UNSW | Australia |
| 69 | IIM Indore | India |
| 70 | TAMU Mays | US |
| 71 | Mannheim | Germany |
| 71 | IIM Lucknow | India |
| 73 | Dublin Smurfit | Ireland |
| 74 | Boston Questrom | US |
| 75 | Notre Dame Mendoza | US |
| 76 | Toronto Rotman | Canada |
| 77 | The Lisbon MBA | Portugal |
| 78 | Fordham Gabelli | US |
| 79 | Queen’s Smith | Canada |
| 80 | William & Mary: Mason | US |
| 80 | ESMT Berlin | Germany |
| 82 | Cranfield | UK |
| 83 | BYU Marriott | US |
| 83 | Babson Olin | US |
| 83 | XLRI | India |
| 86 | Durham | UK |
| 86 | Ivey | Canada |
| 86 | IIM Kozhikode | India |
| 89 | Grenoble Ecole de Management | France |
| 90 | Audencia | France |
| 91 | University of Edinburgh | UK |
| 92 | Hult | US |
| 93 | Copenhagen (CBS) | Denmark |
| 94 | McGill University: Desautels | Canada |
| 95 | UBC Sauder | Canada |
| 96 | Frankfurt School of Finance and Management | Germany |
| 97 | Glasgow Adam Smith | UK |
| 98 | Sungkyunkwan | South Korea |
| 99 | Miami Herbert | US |
| 100 | Eada Barcelona | Spain |
We’ll take the opportunity to remind MBA aspirants, as we do every year, that rankings such as these are not the holy grail. Many of the parameters they use in their ranking methodology may not be relevant to you. Consider them as one data point in your overall research.
Build your independent list of target schools, based on your career goals and personal priorities. If you need help with this part, and the competitive application process that follows, reach out to MBA Crystal Ball. We’ve helped applicants get into all the top programs. Connect with us at: info@mbacrystalball.com
