The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School was named the country's top full-time MBA program in the 2020 U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking. This is the first time Wharton has held the sole top spot.
For the past three years, Harvard Business School has held or shared the number one spot in the ranking. Wharton shared the top spot with Harvard in the 2018 ranking, but slipped to third place in the 2019 list.
The Graduate School of Business at Stanford University ranked second, while Harvard Business School, University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and MIT’s Sloan School of Management all shared third place.
"Wharton moved up two spots after demonstrating high employment rates, starting salaries and bonuses for its graduates," according to a U.S. News press release.
Graduates of the top 15 MBA programs in the country report starting salaries and bonuses of approximately $155,671, CNBC reported. Wharton graduates, however, report the highest starting salaries across these business schools, with an average of $165,528.
U.S. News also highlighted that Wharton has accumulated the largest alumni network among business schools in the country.
The ranking was based on several factors, including peer and recruiter assessments, employment rates, mean starting salary, students' undergraduate grade point averages, and standardized test scores. U.S. News ranked 131 business schools that responded to their survey and provided sufficient data to calculate full-time MBA rankings.
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