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Business School Rankings: Historical Rankings

This guide features a central place to find information about current and historical business school rankings. The guide was originally designed and developed by Bob Hebert of Wake Forest University.

Historical Rankings

 

MBA50.com links to historical rankings

U.S. News’ Historical MBA Rankings
by John A. Byrne on April 18, 2012

U.S. NEWS BUSINESS SCHOOL RANKINGS FROM 2012 TO 2001

School                    12   11   10   09   08   07   06   05   04   03   02   01
Harvard 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2
Stanford 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1
Wharton 3 3 5 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 4
MIT 4 3 3 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5
Northwestern 4 5 4 3 4 5 4 4 5 4 5 3
Chicago 4 5 5 5 4 5 6 8 6 9 6 9
Berkeley 7 7 7 7 7 8 7 6 8 7 10 7
Columbia 8 9 9 9 9 9 7 9 6 6 8 6
Dartmouth 9 7 7 8 7 7 9 6 9 10 9 11
Yale 10 10 11 10 13 14 15 15 14 14 13 12
New York 11 10 9 11 10 10 13 13 14 12 13 12
Duke 12 12 14 12 14 12 11 11 11 7 6 8
Michigan 13 14 12 13 12 11 11 10 10 13 10 10
Virginia 13 13 13 15 14 12 13 14 12 11 10 15
UCLA 15 14 15 14 11 16 10 11 12 14 15 12
Cornell 16 16 18 17 14 14 16 15 14 16 16 16
Texas-Austin 17 16 18 18 18 18 18 23 17 18 18 16
Carnegie Mellon 18 18 16 15 17 17 16 17 17 17 18 17
Emory 19 23 27 22 24 20 18 18 19 21 22 23
North Carolina 19 19 21 20 19 18 20 21 21 21 17 18
Southern Cal 21 21 20 20 21 21 29 26 18 20 20 21
Washington Univ. 22 20 19 22 25 29 26 NA NA NA NA NA
Indiana 23 23 23 22 20 24 23 27 23 23 21 20
Georgetown 24 25 24 19 22 25 34 27 33 24 24 22
Ohio State 25 25 21 26 27 22 22 21 19 19 24 23
Rice 25 34 39 38 40 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Notre Dame 25 37 31 NA NA NA NA 32 NA NA NA NA
Wisconsin 25 28 27 28 29 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Vanderbilt 25 28 36 33 44 34 49 NA NA NA NA NA
Arizona State 30 27 27 29 22 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Minnesota 30 21 24 33 27 25 23 23 21 NA 24 NA
Georgia Tech 32 28 26 22 29 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Texas A&M 32 32 33 33 29 29 31 NA 23 NA NA NA
Brigham Young 34 32 33 29 29 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Washington 35 37 33 26 34 29 29 18 NA NA NA NA
UC-Davis 36 28 42 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Boston College 37 34 39 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Boston Univ. 37 34 31 46 40 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Illinois 37 37 42 38 38 37 28 NA 23 NA NA NA
Rochester 37 45 27 29 25 36 26 23 NA NA 23 NA
UT-Dallas 37 40 50 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Purdue 42 49 36 NA NA NA NA 23 NA NA NA NA
Tulane 43 40 53 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Michigan State 44 51 46 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Penn State 44 40 48 40 40 NA 38 37 NA NA NA NA
Florida 44 47 39 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Maryland 44 45 45 40 39 25 38 NA NA NA NA NA
Wake Forest 44 52 46 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
UC-Irvine 49 40 36 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Iowa 49 40 42 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

Source: U.S. News & World Report rankings

Notes: U.S. News & World Report rankings are dated by the year in which the ranking was published. U.S. News & World Report began ranking full-time MBA programs in 1990, two years after BusinessWeek’s first ranking. The magazine does not allow access to its historical data, preferring only to show the latest annual results.

Businessweek Historical MBA Rankings
by John A. Byrne on April 7, 2012

 BusinessWeek’s Historical MBA Rankings 1988 — 2010

School            10   08   06   04   02   00   98   96   94   92   90   88
Booth 1 1 1 2 2 10 3 8 3 2 4 11
Harvard 2 2 4 5 3 3 5 4 5 3 3 2
Wharton 3 4 2 3 5 1 1 1 1 4 2 4
Kellogg 4 3 3 1 1 2 2 3 2 1 1 1
Stanford 5 6 6 4 4 11 9 7 4 7 5 9
Fuqua 6 8 9 11 9 5 7 11 11 12 13 10
Ross 7 5 5 6 8 6 4 2 6 5 7 6
Haas 8 10 8 17 13 18 16 13 19 18 19 17
Columbia 9 7 10 8 7 7 6 6 8 9 8 14
Sloan 10 9 7 9 6 4 15 9 10 13 11 15
Darden 11 16 15 12 12 9 11 5 12 11 14 7
Cox 12 18   2T 2T 2T 2T 23 NR NR NR NR
Johnson 13 11 13 7 11 8 8 18 15 14 16 5
Tuck 14 12 11 10 10 16 10 10 13 6 6 3
Tepper 15 19 16 15 19 14 14 17 14 17 9 13
Kenan-Flagler 16 17 17 16 18 15 19 19 18 10 12 8
Anderson 17 14 12 14 16 12 12 12 9 16 10 16
Stern 18 13 14 13 15 13 13 14 16 15 17 18
Kelley 19 15 18 18 20 20 21 15 7 8 15 12
Broad 20 2T 29 NR 23 29 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Yale 21 24 19 22 14 19 20 22 NR NR NR 19
Goizueta 22 23 23 20 22 28 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Georgia Tech 23 29   2T 2T 30 3T 2T NR NR NR NR
Mendoza 24 20 26 24 29 2T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
McCombs 25 21 20 19 21 17 18 20 17 NR 18 NR
Marshall 26 25 21 27 17 24 25 2T NR NR NR NR
Marriott 27 22 NR NR 2T 3T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Carlson 28 2T   2T 2T 2T 3T 2T NR NR NR NR
Jones 29 NR   2T 2T 2T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Mays 30 NR   3T 3T 3T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Foster 31 27   2T 2T 3T 3T 2T NR NR NR NR
Fisher 32 2T   2T 2T 2T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
McDonough 33 2T   NR 30 26 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Wisconsin 34 NR   2T 2T 2T 23 2T NR NR NR NR
Freeman 35 NR   3T 3T 2T 3T 2T NR NR NR NR
Terry 36 NR   2T 3T 2T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Owen 37 30 30 30 28 22 2T 24 NR 19 NR NR
Boston Univ. 38 2T   2T 3T 2T 3T 3T NR NR NR NR
Babson 39 2T   NR 2T 2T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Olin 40 28 27 23 24 23 17 16 NR 20 NR NR
Krannert 41 2T 24 21 26 25 24 2T 20 NR NR NR
Smith 42 26 25 28 25 27 22 2T NR NR NR NR
Simon 43 2T 28 29 27 21 2T 21 NR NR 20 20
Smeal 44 NR   2T 2T 2T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Thunderbird 45 2T   2T 2T 2T 2T 25 NR NR NR NR
Illinois 46 2T   2T 2T 2T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Mason 47 NR   3T 2T 2T 2T 3T NR NR NR NR
Wake Forest 48 NR   2T 2T 2T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Carey 49 2T   2T 2T 2T 2T 3T NR NR NR NR
Carroll 50 NR   2T 2T 3T 3T 3T NR NR NR NR
Weatherhead 51 NR   2T 2T 3T 3T 2T NR NR NR NR
GW 52 2T   3T 3T 3T NR NR NR NR NR NR
Howard 53 NR   NR NR 3T NR NR NR NR NR NR
Katz 54 NR   3T 2T 2T 2T 2T NR NR NR NR
Rutgers 55 NR   3T 3T 3T NR NR NR NR NR NR
Northeastern 56 NR   3T 3T NR NR NR NR NR NR NR
Buffalo 57 NR   NR 3T 3T 3T NR NR NR NR NR

Source: BusinessWeek rankings

Notes: BusinessWeek began ranking the top U.S. full-time MBA programs every other year beginning in 1988 when it gave numerical ranks to 20 schools. Over the years, the magazine has expanded its lists, to a Top 25 in 1996, a Top 30 in 2000, and a Top 57 in 2010. In several years, BusinessWeek named second tier (2T) and third tier (3T) schools without a numerical ranking. There is some missing data for second tier schools in the year 2006.