Tag: rankings

While WashU Olin showed stronger job placement results in its Full-Time MBA program and tightened the selectivity among PMBA students year over year, both programs declined in the latest ranking of graduate business programs by US News & World Report.

Those declines came, in part, in the wake of significant changes in US News‘ methodology for both rankings. Olin’s Full-Time MBA fell from 29th to 37th, tying in that ranking with programs from Penn State and the University of California-Irvine. The PMBA dropped slightly, from 19th to 20th year over year.

In the case of the FTMBA, some of that decline came thanks to changes in the US News methodology, which reduced the weight of a survey-based quality assessment by peer schools and recruiters and increased the weight of employment rates, mean starting salaries and bonuses.

“Across many dimensions of this latest US News MBA ranking, Olin held steady or improved in the raw numbers. That’s good news,” said Gisele Marcus, professor of practice in diversity, equity and inclusion and Olin’s interim co-lead in the graduate programs office. “The overall results of this ranking can serve as another reference point as we gauge where the MBA marketplace is headed. We know what we have to do.”

For example, Olin increased employment rates, starting salaries and bonuses year over year. Still, the heavier weighting for those measures resulted in a decline in that dimension relative to other programs. Meanwhile, Olin’s quality assessment by recruiters and peers stayed steady year over year, but that dimension counted substantially lower in the overall ranking.

Meanwhile, Olin’s PMBA program was able to be more selective, choosing students with higher test scores, better grade-point averages and more work experience than the year before—dimensions, again, that counted for less under the new US News ranking methodology. Olin was also penalized because fewer students submitted graduate admission test scores than the methodology allowed.

Indeed, in its coverage, Poets & Quants referred to US News‘ 2023 ranking as “topsy-turvy,” noting that under the new methodology, b-school powerhouses Stanford and Wharton slipped down the rankings year over year, while Harvard stayed at fifth. The US News changes “caused plenty of wild swings up and down the ranking, particularly for smaller MBA programs with larger numbers of international students,” the site wrote.

WashU Olin’s BSBA program ranked ninth in the latest ranking of undergraduate business schools from Poets & Quants, a showing that reflects the increasing competitiveness of the ranking since it debuted with WashU at No. 1 in 2016.

In the 2023 edition of the Poets & Quants ranking, Olin fell five spots from its 2022 ranking, which was released March 1. That showing came in spite of the school garnering an overall score of 95.52—nearly three points higher than last year’s score.

P&Q centers its ranking on three main criteria: the quality of the incoming students, the career outcomes students achieve after graduation and their view of their school’s academic experience. The former two criteria are based on surveys of school data (e.g., acceptance rates, SAT scores, salary averages) completed between June and December. The latter student experience data is based on a survey of graduates from the class of 2020.

Olin remained stable at fourth place in employment results, and rose from 29th to 17th in academic experience, but fell to eighth in the admissions category.

WashU Olin’s Full-Time MBA rose two places among US-based business schools—from 20th to 18th—in the latest ranking of global programs from the Financial Times, released on February 13.

This year’s ranking—the Financial Times’ 25th-anniversary edition—came with a substantial shift in its methodology—which included the addition of new categories and the shifting of category weights. Still, Olin stayed firm in its placement among global programs, with a drop of only two spots from 29 to 31.

The FT’s changes played out in a variety of ways. For example, Olin’s ranking for weighted salary improved from 47th to 37th at the same time the ranking decreased the weight for that category. Olin graduates on average saw salaries rise $18,460 to $162,694.

WashU Olin’s strong showing domestically and relative global stability came largely as a result of solid career outcomes for Olin graduates. For example, the dimension looking at salary percentage increase rose to 130% from 123% last year—and, again, the weighting for this category declined.

Meanwhile, in a new category called “sector diversity,” referring to the diversity of job sectors students worked in at the time of admission, Olin ranked ninth.

“Even as methodologies change, we value the affirmation this ranking provides of the education and experience we provide to Olin MBA students,” said Anjan Thakor, interim dean at WashU Olin. “We remain confident that we’re on the right track toward providing the foundation our students need to succeed as 21st-century leaders.”

Citing a major overhaul of the WashU Olin MBA and placing Olin’s program among “the most surprising moves up and down the list,” Poets & Quants ranked Olin #23 in its recent list of the top full-time MBA programs in the United States.

The new ranking shows continued momentum for WashU Olin’s program among the MBA ranking publications. Indeed, the Poets & Quants ranking reflects that momentum, as it is a composite of the five most influential lists of MBA programs.

Those include US News, the Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes and the Economist, which published its last ranking of MBA programs in 2022. The P&Q ranking was released on December 26.

Olin moved up six spots in the P&Q ranking, again reflecting the program’s strong employment statistics, its faculty research and teaching, its commitment to diversity and entrepreneurship and its focus on global business savvy.

The ranking’s value as a composite shows an overall trend of improvement across the board, moderating the volatility that can sometimes occur in rankings. P&Q cited Olin’s MBA overhaul, which included a focus on global business education and included additional flexibility in coursework and timing as well as the addition of a STEM designation.

Buoyed by strong representation from female students, strong international course experience and very strong salaries for graduates, WashU Olin’s Shanghai-based Executive MBA program rose substantially in the Financial Times’ latest ranking of similar programs for 2022.

The ranking, released in October, showed a marked increase in the program’s performance in the FT ranking over the previous two years. In 2021, Olin’s ranking suffered when pandemic-related issues prevented the program from enrolling a class in time. The year before, in 2020, Olin ranked 16, so its rise to the top 10—in the year of its 20th anniversary—was significant.

“Olin’s joint EMBA program in Shanghai with Fudan University has long been one of the gems of our school,” said Anjan Thakor, interim dean at WashU Olin. “I’m thrilled to see the hard work of so many, and the dedication of our students, recognized by the results of this ranking.”

Daniel Elfenbein, Olin professor of organization and strategy and associate dean for the EMBA-Shanghai program, acknowledged the “tremendous challenges for effectively engaging with students” through COVID-19.

“Thanks to the flexibility of our faculty, our students and our Fudan partners—and the incredibly hard work that each of these groups has put in—the EMBA-Shanghai program remains one that we can be tremendously proud of,” Elfenbein said. “These rankings validate that hard work, and they reflect the impact that our program continues to have in global executive education.”

Program on the vanguard

Olin was on the vanguard among business schools when it partnered with Fudan University in 2002 to launch the first-of-its-kind Executive MBA in China, placing American business faculty members in front of Chinese nationals to teach global business principles.

At the time, China was just entering the World Trade Organization, and its economy was the sixth largest in the world. Today, China’s economy is ranked second, and the program counts more than 1,000 students among its graduates.

Among the highlights of the 2022 Financial Times ranking:

• The incoming class in the joint Shanghai-based program was 42% female, placing Olin 15th among schools.
• Alumni salaries were strong, averaging $398,893, moving Olin up from 10th to sixth in that dimension of the ranking.
• In international course experience, Olin rose substantially, from 39th to 22nd.
• The WashU-Fudan program also showed continued strengths in its ranking for work experience (10th) and its Financial Times research ranking (eighth).

“The fact that our program continues to soar is a testament to the commitment and passion of everyone involved—students, staff and faculty,” said Markus Baer, professor of organizational behavior and Olin’s vice dean of executive education. “We are excited about the future and what we can accomplish in the years to come.”

One area of opportunity centered in curriculum content hours focused on environment, sustainability and governance issues. Nearly 13% of Olin’s curriculum centers on those issues—similar to previous years—but its ranking in that category fell, indicating an increase in curriculum hours among other schools.

Northwestern University, the China Europe International Business School, Tsinghua University/INSEAD, HEC Paris and ESCP Business School took the top five spots in the 2022 ranking. Rounding out the top 10 were programs including a three-way joint program among HEC Paris, New York University and the London School of Economics; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the University of Chicago; WashU Olin; and the University of Navarra.