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Preview data: all rankings, scores, votes, refresh labels, methodology, testing and editorial-process statements in Top 49 are illustrative demo content, not live measurements or documented reviews.
Rank 184Down 4
#18 in MBA Programs
of 20 ranked entries
IMD Business School
Lausanne, Switzerland · Founded 1990
IMD runs an unusually intense eleven-month program aimed almost entirely at experienced managers rather than career switchers, and its executive-education arm subsidises research most schools this size could not otherwise afford. Recorded specifics: founded 1990, location Lausanne, Switzerland, duration 11 mo. Panel highlighted eleven-month format is among the most compressed of any leading program, deep executive-education revenue base funds research well beyond its class size and small class size sustains an unusually high faculty-to-student ratio. The reservation on record is explicit focus on experienced managers makes it a poor fit for career switchers.
Global campusAccelerated
Score breakdown
How IMD Business School earned 75.1
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on MBA Programs.
- Career outcomesweight 30%
- 77.1
- Faculty & rigorweight 25%
- 75.6
- Network strengthweight 25%
- 74.2
- Selectivityweight 20%
- 72.8
On the record
Recorded detail
| Founded | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Location | Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Duration | 11 mo |
| Rating | 8.6 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- Eleven-month format is among the most compressed of any leading program
- Deep executive-education revenue base funds research well beyond its class size
- Small class size sustains an unusually high faculty-to-student ratio
Where it gives ground
- Explicit focus on experienced managers makes it a poor fit for career switchers
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
From the same list
Ranked alongside it
Rank 01Editor’s pickStanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford, California · Founded 1925
Stanford GSB admits the smallest class of any top-tier program and leans hardest into its Silicon Valley address, producing the highest concentration of founders of any MBA program in this ranking.
96.6/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 02Editor’s pickHarvard Business School
Boston, Massachusetts · Founded 1908
HBS built the case-method teaching style that most of the industry still imitates, and its sheer alumni density in Fortune 500 leadership remains unmatched by any other single program.
94.9/100 Top 49 score—No change
Rank 03Editor’s pickWharton School
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · Founded 1881
Wharton was the first collegiate business school in the world and has stayed the clearest finance-pipeline program in the country, with placement into investment banking and asset management that no rival consistently matches.
94.7/100 Top 49 score3Up 3
Rank 04University of Chicago Booth
Chicago, Illinois · Founded 1898
Booth’s flexible, no-required-core curriculum is unusual among elite programs, and its economics faculty’s influence on the wider discipline is arguably deeper than any business school on this list.
92.3/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 05Editor’s pickMIT Sloan
Cambridge, Massachusetts · Founded 1914
Sloan’s proximity to MIT’s engineering departments produces a genuinely different kind of MBA graduate — one as comfortable reading a technical roadmap as a balance sheet, which operations and product-heavy employers value highly.
90.9/100 Top 49 score—No change
Rank 06Northwestern Kellogg
Evanston, Illinois · Founded 1908
Kellogg built its reputation on team-based, marketing-forward pedagogy at a time when most programs were still lecture-driven, and that collaborative culture remains the clearest reason alumni cite for choosing it.
90.2/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 07Columbia Business School
New York, New York · Founded 1916
Columbia’s January entry term is one of the few ways into a top-ten program without leaving a job on the standard academic calendar, and its Manhattan address keeps finance recruiting genuinely embedded in the curriculum.
88.4/100 Top 49 score4Up 4
Rank 08UC Berkeley Haas
Berkeley, California · Founded 1898
Haas is explicit about its “Defining Leadership Principles” culture screen in admissions, and Bay Area proximity gives it a tech and impact-investing placement pipeline that punches above its class size.
87.3/100 Top 49 scoreNewNew entry
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Top 49 rankings are editorial. Scores are produced from the published criteria on each list and are refreshed on the cadence stated there. Figures shown across this section are curated demonstration data.