Harvard has finally lost the 6-year consecutive run as the top Business School in the 2016 Financial Times Global MBA ranking. Insead, which has been downgraded by The Economist (#13), is the #1 Business School in FT Ranking, taking over Harvard, which is at #2. The third position is held by London Business School, which lost one position in this year’s Global MBA ranking.
Weighted Salary in Dollars averages out the post-MBA salary over a 3-year period, while adjusting against variations in industry and job function. The metric also takes into consideration Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) to even out salary received across countries based on the purchasing power and exchange rate.
Top #5 MBA Programs based on Weighted Salary (Dollars) are:
1. Stanford Graduate School of Business ($185,939)
2. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton ($177,877)
3. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad ($174,274)
4. Harvard Business School ($172,501)
5. Columbia Business School ($169,866)
Alumni feedback is crucial if you need to gauge the satisfaction score. To a large extent, with an immersive experience like a full-time MBA, loyalty will be formed, but the questionnaire asks the Alumni to list three schools for MBA recruitment.
The class size makes a huge difference. The probability of recruiting a student from the school and the multiplying effect of alumni recommending the MBA program increases with class size. Although there is no direct correlation between Alumni ranking and class size, London Business School deserves special mention for the sheer tenacity to emerge in this ranking when the competitor class size is 5 to 10 times its own.
The obvious ranking pattern is when the Alumni rank alma matter at #1. The final answer varied and you have a variety of program in the top 10 list.
Top #10 MBA Programs (According to Alumni)
1. Harvard Business School (935)
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business (410)
3. MIT: Sloan (406)
4. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton (859)
5. London Business School (120)
6. Insead (523)
7. Northwestern University: Kellogg (691)
8. Columbia Business School (743)
9. University of Chicago: Booth (583)
10. University of California at Berkeley: Haas (241)
*class size in bracket
Career Service Team
The drive of the incoming class determines the reliance on the career service team. For a Harvard, Stanford or Wharton, the brand pull and the networking capability of the student compensates for the career service team’s ineffectiveness, but for schools outside the top 10 list, the pro-activeness of the team is crucial for attracting the right recruiters.
For career switchers, consider this criterion before choosing your MBA.
Top 10 MBA programs (Most Effective Career Service Team)
*From the Top 100 ranked MBA programs
1. Carnegie Mellon: Tepper
2. University of Chicago: Booth
3. Georgia Institute of Technology: Scheller
4. Sungkyunkwan University GSB
5. Indiana University: Kelley
6. University of Virginia: Darden
7. UCLA: Anderson
8. University of California at Irvine: Merage
9. New York University: Stern
10. Cornell University: Johnson
Bottom 10 MBA Programs (Least Effective Career Service Team)
*From the Top 100 ranked MBA programs (#1 is the least effective)
10. Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
9. Queen's University: Smith
8. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
7. University of Toronto: Rotman
6. Macquarie Graduate School of Management
5. University of British Columbia: Sauder
4. Melbourne Business School
3. Grenoble Ecole de Management
2. Durham University Business School
1. University of Cape Town GSB
Does FT MBA ranking reflect the market?
It is hard to tell with 43% response rate, but among the top rankings, FT is looked upon as a ranking with a much neutral undertone than say the disruptive ranking published by The Economist. For applicants who want a status quo metric, FT ranking is a good reference point.
See the 2016 Full-time MBA Rankings for the Complete List
Top 20 MBA Programs (According to FT)
About the Author
I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.
For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.
My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.
I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.
The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.
Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.