In a ranking released on Tuesday, U.S. News rated Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) as the best business school in the country.
Stanford’s GSB overtook Harvard Business School and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, both of which had tied with Stanford for the number one position in last year’s ranking. Those schools were ranked second and third, respectively, in this year’s list.
The U.S. News ranking stated that the GSB’s focus on leadership in its curriculum helped set it apart. The ranking takes a number of criteria into consideration, including acceptance rates, job placement and reputation among other business school deans. For this year’s ranking, U.S. News rated 126 graduate schools of business.
According to the GSB’s web profile, 7,335 students applied for the 410 spots in the class of 2016. The most recent graduating class received a median base salary of $125,000.
In an email statement to The Daily, Garth Saloner M.A. ’81 M.S. ’82 Ph.D. ’82, dean of the Graduate School of Business, welcomed the news but cautioned against emphasizing the results of rankings.
“While we are pleased when Stanford Graduate School of Business does well, we believe each ranking captures a completely different aspect of the educational experience,” Saloner said. “You really can’t reduce the breadth of any university experience to a single number.”
“That said, the newly-released U.S. News & World Report ranking affirms that our program attracts the highest-quality students who emerge from the dynamic educational experience here to become change agents, poised to change lives, change organizations and change the world,” he added.
Contact Michael Gioia at mgioia2 ‘at’ stanford.edu