The Economist Releases 2017 MBA Ranking

The Economist has updated its MBA rankings for 2017.

This year, US-based business schools dominate the top of the MBA ranking. Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management takes the lead this year. At Kellogg, average salaries of new MBA graduates were just under $124,000, a 72 percent increase over pre-MBA salaries, according to the ranking's data.

The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, which led the ranking last year, drops to second place this year. At $126,000, on average new Booth MBA grads had higher average salaries than those at Kellogg, but slightly lower salary increase (71 percent). 

Harvard Business School, which was ranked fourth last year, comes in at number three this year. However, UPenn's Wharton School made strong progress this year, jumping to spot number four from place 12 last year. 

Stanford Graduate School of Business—with its strong average new MBA salaries of just over $140,000—holds steady at position number five.

Placed sixth is UCLA's Anderson School of Management, which jumped from position number 14 last year.

Another California, UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, takes seventh place.

Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, Columbia Graduate School of Business, and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business round out the top-10, in that order. See the top 20 schools in the ranking below.

Non-US b-schools drop in this year's Economist MBA ranking

Schools outside of the US did not do as well in this year's MBA ranking from The Economist. The first non-US school in the ranking is France's HEC Paris, which comes in at position number 15 this year, dropping six places from last year.

Likewise, Australia's University of Queensland has also dropped six places from last year, coming in at position number 16.

Spain's IESE Business School, which was in the top 10 last year, has dropped to position number 17.

France's INSEAD Business School, which has ranked at the top of the Global MBA Ranking from the Financial Times for two years in a row, is ranked in this year's Economist MBA ranking at position number 21.

To rank the programs, The Economist looked at a number of factors, including how the MBAs opened up new career opportunities, salary, and networking potential, among others.

The Economist's 2017 MBA ranking (top 20 schools)

Previous Economist MBA rankings coverage

• The Economist Releases its Latest MBA Ranking (2016)
• The Economist Updates MBA Rankings for 2015
• The Economist Updates its MBA Ranking for 2014

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