Wharton opts out of MBA rankings in the Economist and the Financial Times this year

The Wharton School opted out of two popular MBA rankings for this year.

Wharton was joined by Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business in skipping the most recent rankings by the Economist and the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some schools said COVID-19 made it hard to collect the data universities must submit to be ranked.

Nine schools did not submit information to Financial Times to be ranked, and dozens of schools were missing from the Economist's list, according to The Wall Street Journal.

With the absence of major MBA programs from these rankings, some European programs received a boost, The Wall Street Journal reported. The IESE Business School in Spain moved up nine spots to take the No. 1 spot on the Economist’s list and INSEAD in France topped the Financial Times' list.

A Kaplan survey found that 62% of programs plan to participate in some rankings, while 10% don't plan to participate in any, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bloomberg Businessweek was the only major ranking list to suspend its rankings.

The ranking lists are based on many criteria, including test scores and surveys of alumni satisfaction with education and career prospects, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

Last year, Wharton placed second to Harvard on Financial Times' list, up two places from the previous year. The Economist did not produce a full-time MBA program ranking in 2020 but the publication ranked Wharton the No. 5 business school in 2019. 

Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia announced that they will participate in the U.S. News & World Report rankings that are due in March, in part because it is less time consuming. Last year, Wharton and Stanford tied for first on that list.