Insead was #13 in the latest Economist Global MBA rankings, but the school is the #1 Business School in FT Global Ranking for 2017, first taking over the position from Harvard last year. Stanford and Wharton took the second and third positions respectively.
One unique ranking factor in FT is the Weighted Salary ($). This post-MBA salary statistics averages the salary for a 3-year period while considering the variations in job function and industry. Since 20-30% students (depending on the percentage international class) return to their country, the purchasing power parity (PPP) is another metric used in FT MBA ranking that gives a level playing field for salaries earned across the world while balancing for exchange rates.
Top #5 MBA Programs based on Weighted Salary (Dollars) are:
1. Stanford Graduate School of Business ($195,322)
2. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad ($181,863)
3. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton ($181,634)
4. Harvard Business School ($178,113)
5. Columbia Business School ($172,624)
Ranking Methodology
Alumni feedback should influence the ranking the most. For FT Global MBA ranking, Alumni’s feedback was vital for calculating Weighted Salary (20), Salary Increase (20), Value for Money (3), Career progression (3), Aims Achieved (3), Career Service (2), Employed after three months (2), and Alumni Recommended (2), taking the total ranking factor contributed by alumni to 55 out of 100.
Survey Participants: 156 Schools
Ranked: Top 100
Alumni Participation: 9000
Salary Data of MBA Graduates: 2013 Graduated Class
Response Rate: 41%
Data about Business Schools: 2016
Top #10 MBA Programs (According to Alumni)
1. Harvard Business School
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business
3. MIT: Sloan
4. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
5. London Business School
6. Insead
7. Northwestern University: Kellogg
8. Columbia Business School
9. University of Chicago: Booth
10. University of California at Berkeley: Haas
Career Service Team
For top 10 MBA programs, career service team’s push might not be an influencing factor as the recruiter are aware of the brands. Also, the type of students in the class is driven to find the right opportunities. They don’t require special attention. However, the effort and the inventiveness of the career service team is a big influence for schools in the 10-99 ranking.
Top 10 MBA programs (Most Effective Career Service Team)
*From the Top 100 ranked MBA programs
1. University of Chicago: Booth
2. Indiana University: Kelley
3. Carnegie Mellon: Tepper
4. Georgia Institute of Technology: Scheller
5. New York University: Stern
6. UCLA: Anderson
7. University of Cambridge: Judge
8. Dartmouth College: Tuck
9. University of California at Irvine: Merage
10. University of Virginia: Darden
Bottom 10 MBA Programs (Least Effective Career Service Team)
*From the Top 100 ranked MBA programs (#1 is the least effective)
10. HKUST Business School
9. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
8. Temple University: Fox
7. Vlerick Business School
6. Birmingham Business School
5. Durham University Business School
4. University of Edinburgh Business School
3. Grenoble Ecole de Management
2. Macquarie Graduate School of Management
1. University of South Carolina: Moore
Does FT MBA ranking reflect the realities of the MBA job market?
It is hard to tell with 41% response rate. We have some concerns about the ranking factor in percentage allotted to some criteria. More on that in our review of the ranking methodology but among the Global MBA rankings published FT gives a fair assessment of the Top 20 Global MBA programs.
See the FT Global MBA Ranking 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.