I am trying to narrow down to a couple of EMBA programs to apply to in the US - and am having trouble determining why the rankings in this space don't really line up. For instance, both Business Week and the FT rank the Wharton program quite highly - but Wharton doesn't show up in the Economist ranking at all.

And then another school I was looking at, Notre Dame - does pretty well in the Economist, but isn't even listed in the FT's ranking!

Also, Emory's EMBA is pretty high in Business Week, but much lower in the other ones.

So what gives? Which should I trust?

There's only so much that rankings can tell you about these programs. For one, I would take the Economist ranking with at least a shred of skepticism - it's the first year they've run the EMBA rankings, and their MBA rankings have received a lot of criticism for the methodology.

While the other two big ones (FT and Businessweek) both focus strongly on post-EMBA salary, there are minor differences that might explain the placement discrepancies. I would say that the biggest is that FT has more of an international focus - that's why the joint global programs (Kellogg/HKUST, Columbia/LBS, Trium) lead the rankings. Whereas Businessweek's is obviously more of a US-focused ranking.

As to your school selection, these are a pretty wide range of EMBA programs. I think the Wharton program is a good, modern program with a nice range of electives and high-quality cohorts. It's sort of in a different tier than the other programs you mentioned - so I'm a bit curious to as why you would group these together.

I didn't really group these together based on my interest. I am just scouting the field to see which EMBA programs I might apply for. I was just curious about the explanation for the variation in the rankings, and that clears it up a bit, thanks!