How the Report Cards Get Graded

There has never been a better time to get an MBA. A grad at one of Business Week's top 30 B-schools raked in an average median pay package--salary, bonus, and other compensation--of $126,900, up 12% since our last ranking in 1998. The letter grades on the ranking tables that follow are based on graduate and corporate-recruiter surveys from the 82 U.S. schools we surveyed this year and from the 247 companies that answered our questionnaire. New this year is the intellectual capital ranking column. It measures a school's ability to shape current management thinking through faculty publication. The top 20% in each category earned themselves A's. The next 25% got B's, the next 35% got C's, and the bottom 20% got D's. Click here for details on how we calculated the data.
Back to 2000 Profiles
Back to Contents of BW's Best B-Schools Issue

2000 Rank	School	1998 Rank	Corp. Poll	Grad. Poll	Intel. Cap.	Annual Tuition*	Applicants accepted	Enrollment***			Median Pay**		Grads earning over $100,000	Average job offers	MBAs graded by recruiters		Schools graded by MBAs
								Women	Intl.	Minorities****	Pre-MBA	Post-MBA			Analysts	Team Players	Curriculum	Placement
1	PENNSYLVANIA (Wharton) Philadelphia	1	1	3	8	$27,170	14%	29%	39%	8%	$60,000	$156,000	89%	3.6	A	A	C	A
		Drops one notch in student poll, but still comes out on top. Recruiters give high marks to students for their international perspective.
2	NORTHWESTERN (Kellogg) Evanston, Ill.	2	2	1	15	28,677	18	31	32	14	55,000	142,000	83	3.5	A	A	A	A
		A consistent favorite among students. Grads rank it tops again while recruiters tout students' teamwork.
3	HARVARD Boston	5	3	4	13	28,500	13	31	32	14	65,000	160,000	89	4.1	A	A	A	A
		Students give high marks for networking and connections to the business community, but recruiters claim the career office is ineffective.
4	MIT (Sloan) Cambridge, Mass.	15	7	7	2	29,860	17	27	37	11	55,000	149,000	88	3.9	A	B	A	A
		Soars in overall ranking from 15th place to 4th. Students cite improvements in course electives and top-notch faculty. Recruiters call it a bastion for technology.
5	DUKE (Fuqua) Durham, N.C.	7	8	10	1	29,735	19	38	28	16	48,000	128,500	80	3.1	A	A	B	A
		Recruiters praise improved program and thoughtful placement officials. Students cheer links to nontraditional companies.
6	MICHIGAN Ann Arbor	4	6	5	12	28,500	21	28	31	12	50,000	131,000	81	3.3	A	A	B	A
		Loses some luster by dropping out of top five. Students rave about career initiatives but fault academic program.
7	COLUMBIA New York	6	5	17	6	30,548	12	37	28	13	50,000	142,500	85	3.1	A	A	C	A
		Makes a comeback with students who give placement center high marks. Recruiters applaud finance skills and global scope.
8	CORNELL (Johnson) Ithaca, N.Y.	8	10	8	4	27,600	25	27	30	5	48,000	135,000	82	3.2	A	A	B	B
		Grads say they'll urge friends to apply, citing school's responsiveness to students. Career services gains steam as recruiters notice grad skills in management and marketing.
9	VIRGINIA (Darden)	11	9	2	16	24,208	19	28	25	14	50,000	135,000	84	3.4	A	A	B	A
		New dean invigorates student body. School rises 13 notches in student survey, despite demanding workload. .
10	CHICAGO Chicago	3	4	24	7	29,231	25	23	31	7	55,000	140,000	86	3.1	A	A	C	B
		Students less satisfied than peers at any other top 10 school. But recruiters give career center top billing for effectiveness.
11	STANFORD Stanford, Calif.	9	12	15	3	28,896	8	35	31	10	65,500	165,500	80	3.8	A	B	C	A
		Least responsive to students, who are unenthusiastic about their teachers. Recruiters ranked school's placement office the worst of any top-30 school.
12	UCLA (Anderson) Los Angeles	12	13	6	10	21,235	15	28	26	8	55,000	136,500	68	2.8	B	B	C	B
		Falls five spots in grad poll because of dissatisfaction in core courses and less-than-stellar teachers. Recruiters cite student's strong marketing skills.
13	NYU (Stern) New York	13	11	16	23	29,956	22	39	35	9	45,000	140,000	77	2.8	A	A	B	A
		Remains a leader in teaching finance skills. Edging back up in grad satisfaction thanks to more elective courses and better career counseling.
14	CARNEGIE MELLON Pittsburgh	14	14	13	22	26,750	31	26	37	5	45,000	125,000	70	3.1	A	B	A	B
		Drops eight spots in student satisfaction on complaints of unresponsive administrators. Recruiters rank grads high on technology skills, just behind MIT.
15	UNC (Kenan-Flagler) Chapel Hill	19	16	11	21	21,110	22	31	29	11	47,000	125,000	68	3.0	B	B	A	B
		Grads say teachers here are among the best and applaud program to foster entrepreneurship, but students fail to impress many recruiters.
16	DARTMOUTH (Tuck) Hanover, N.H.	10	17	12	14	28,740	14	32	32	9	50,000	149,500	85	2.8	B	A	C	A
		The 100-year-old school falls off in both student and recruiter polls. Students give teachers unusually low marks while recruiters are indifferent toward grads.
17	TEXAS (McCombs) Austin	18	18	21	20	16,063	25	24	26	5	45,000	107,000	58	2.9	B	B	A	B
		More recruiters looking at its grads. High marks from students for relevant curriculum and high-quality teaching.
18	UC BERKELEY (Haas) Berkeley	16	22	14	38	20,702	14	34	32	7	51,000	135,000	68	3.1	B	B	C	B
		Grads getting more job offers thanks to new placement director. Students content with new administration, but recruiters give grads a middling rating.
19	YALE New Haven	20	23	22	5	27,680	17	30	32	6	44,000	130,000	75	2.7	C	B	C	B
		Students rank school low in networking and faculty. Recruiters, meanwhile, say grads are generally middle-of-the-road, but rank faculty among the brightest.
20	INDIANA (Kelley) Bloomington	21	20	20	36	19,258	33	24	31	9	40,000	114,000	58	2.9	B	A	A	B
		Administration responds well to student concerns and maintains solid reputation with recruiters. Grads get kudos for teamwork.
21	ROCHESTER (Simon) New York	NA	29	18	11	26,460	30	24	50	17	40,000	110,000	52	2.8	C	C	B	B
		Recruiters and students are pleased with strong teachers. Highest number of international and minority students of any school in top 30.
22	VANDERBILT (Owen) Nashville	NA	24	23	9	26,300	38	27	28	5	40,000	115,000	55	2.6	B	B	B	C
		Makes it to top tier after recovering from dean's death in 1999. Students and recruiters say staff's efforts to raise school's profile in the aftermath shows.
23	WASHINGTON U. (Olin) St. Louis	17	37	9	31	27,140	29	25	33	9	40,500	109,000	45	2.9	D	C	C	B
		Grads rate this school most responsive, boosting it seven places in student survey. Recruiters note slight improvements but call overall performance lackluster.
24	USC (Marshall) Los Angeles	25	25	19	39	27,060	27	33	23	11	46,500	112,000	38	2.7	B	B	B	B
		Maintains solid footing with students and gains ground with recruiters, who have finally discovered the school's talented grads.
25	PURDUE (Krannert) W. Lafayette, Ind.	24	19	28	17	17,892	23	21	41	9	32,000	101,500	46	3.5	B	B	B	B
		Slips one spot. Students acknowledge helpful faculty despite drop in number of job offers.
26	GEORGETOWN (McDonough) D.C.	NA	21	27	26	26,720	19	36	38	8	45,000	116,000	51	2.9	C	C	B	C
		Nudges ahead of nearby rival Maryland. Still, recruiters rank career center toward the bottom.
27	MARYLAND (Smith) College Park	22	28	25	33	16,888	23	35	35	10	39,000	105,000	33	2.4	B	D	B	C
		Placement office falters with recruiters. Students agree and question the value of their degree.
28	EMORY (Goizueta) Atlanta	NA	34	26	25	26,200	34	30	32	8	45,000	105,000	48	2.6	C	B	C	B
		Moves into top 30 for the first time. Recruiters rank it one of the most improved. Students credit accessible professors.
29	MICHIGAN STATE (Broad) E. Lansing	NA	26	29	27	15,300	26	28	36	8	34,000	93,000	14	3.3	B	C	C	A
		Students give thumbs-up for placement initiatives. Administrators try to cash in on Net boom with program in high-tech marketing.
30	GEORGIA TECH (DuPree) Atlanta	NA	15	39	32	14,378	35	29	29	12	35,000	95,000	40	2.9	B	C	C	C
		Catapults into top 30, thanks to increased grad satisfaction. Students criticize administration's lack of responsiveness to their concerns.
*1999-2000 **Post-MBA pay equals median salary, bonus and other compensation
***For combined years 1999-2000 (Stanford and Maryland are estimates)**** Minority data do not include Asian-Americans