Forbes Releases 2015 MBA Rankings

The news magazine Forbes has updated its MBA rankings for 2015. 

The publication divides its rankings into three lists: a US ranking, a one-year international MBA ranking, and a two-year international MBA ranking.

For the US MBA ranking, Stanford Graduate School of Business once again tops the list; Forbes found that, five years out of school, 2010 Stanford MBAs tripled their pre-MBA salaries to $255,000.

Harvard Business School takes second place in the US ranking, displacing the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, which dropped this year to position six. Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, Columbia Business School and Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business rank three, four, and five, in that order.

The Wharton School dropped three places to take spot number seven this year, which UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business jumped six places, to spot number eight. 

MIT's Sloan School of Management and Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management round out the top US MBA ranking.

Further down the list, strong gains were seen by UGA's Terry College of Business, which rose 13 positions to place 36, and UC Irvine's Merage School of Business, which rose 19 places to land at 42.

For the one-year international MBA program ranking, INSEAD tops the list, buoyed by strong salary growth by graduates. The school's class of 2010 MBAs saw a 5-year gain of $171,200; it took graduates around 2.4 years, on average, to pay back their investment. 

INSEAD is followed by Switzerland's IMD Business School, Cambridge Judge Business School, Italy's SDA Bocconi, and Spain's IE Business School.

The two-year international MBA ranking is topped by London Business School. "The five-year gain for LBS is the highest of any two-year MBA program in the world, edging out Stanford" and INSEAD, according to Forbes. Spain's IESE Business School takes the second spot in this ranking, and is followed by HEC Paris, China's CEIBS, and HKUST.

Unlike other rankings, Forbes lists MBA program solely based on one factor: return on investment for alumni five years out from graduation.

To learn more about MBA rankings and see business schools ranked by other publications, including the Financial Times and Businessweek, please see FIND MBA's Rankings page.

Image: London Business School