Many potential MBA students use the MBA rankings as their gauge in deciding which business school and program to take. The most popular published rankings are that of Business Week MBA rankings in the U.S., Financial Times (FT) in Europe and the U.S. and Asia Week in Asia.

According to Business Week, the top five MBA schools in the U.S. today are the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton College, Northwestern University’s Kellogg, Harvard University, MIT’s Sloan and Duke University’s Fuqua. The Financial Times’ 2001 rankings also lists Wharton as the top b-school worldwide followed by Harvard Business School, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), University of Chicago’s GSB and Columbia University’s GSB.

Basing on a 2006 survey by the Economic Intelligence Unit, the top business school in the world offering full-time MBA programs is the University of Navarra’s IESE Business School in Spain. The school topped the Economist Intelligence Unit’s ranking for two straight years. The other schools that made it to the top 5 ranking are mostly based in the United States. They are the Tuck School of Business (Dartmouth College), Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business and International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland.

The IESE survey showed that eight of the top ten business schools are in the U.S. Only Spain’s IESE and Switzerland’s IMD made it to the top alongside American schools. The survey added that in terms of finance, U.S.-based schools have more advantage because many of their wealthy alumni contribute to the institution. An example is Stanford University whose alumnus Philip Knight, founder of Nike, pledged $105 million in building a new campus. Harvard university also benefited more from endowments and gifts rather than the tuition fees paid by MBA students. Business schools in the U.S. also gain more money because of a larger number of MBA enrollees. On the average, top schools in North American take in 217 applicants for MBA programs compared to just 88 in Europe. More finances in schools translate to better professors, enhanced opportunities for research and quality students.

Another edge of American schools is that they were the first to offer business education. The Tuck Business School of Dartmouth College opened in 1900 and is said to be the oldest graduate business school in the world. Meanwhile, University of Navarra’s IESE Business School in Spain was established in 1958 with the help of Harvard University. It is one of Europe’s oldest business schools.

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