IMD Tops Forbes Best Business School Ranking for 1-year MBA

IMD stands first in Forbes’ 10th biennial ranking of the best business schools around the globe for the 1-year full-time MBA program.

On the second spot is INSEAD followed by IE Business School in the third place and Cambridge Judge Business School in the 4^th position.

The survey for the ranking covered more than 100 schools and 17,500 alumni who were asked about their pre- and post-MBA compensation, career choice and location.

SDA Bocconi School of Management is ranked 5^th with Oxford Said placed 6^th, University of Hong Kong Faculty of Business and Economics 7^th, Mannheim Business School 8^th, RSM Erasmus 9^th and Cranfield School of Management 10^th.

The Lausanne, Switzerland based IMD has an annual enrolment of 90 with a median GMAT score of 679. The program cost is $88,642 and 5-year MBA gain at $194,700. The school has moved one spot up from the second rank in the previous biennial ranking in 2015. The limiting of its annual enrolment at 90 students, allows for a very individual approach regarding career services.

With students having an average of seven years of work experience, they have to forgo higher amounts in salaries during the program ($81,000 for the Class of 2012). The fee is also the highest for a one-year program at $88,000 for the current class.

However, the payoff is good with the class of 2012 netting a median salary of $215,000 five years after graduation, $26,000 more than any other non-U.S. school. IMD grads earned back their investment (forgone salary, tuition) in just 2.3 years on average.

INSEAD at Fontainebleau, France, has an annual enrolment of 1055 and median GMAT score of 710. The program cost is $85,905 and 5-year MBA gain at $150,400. The graduates’ payback is just 2.7 years with salaries five years out of school touching nearly $190,000.

The Madrid-based IE Business School has an annual enrolment of 547, median GMAT score at 685. The program cost is $82,279 and 5-year MBA gain at $145,400. It has moved up two places in the rankings based on its gain of $145,400. The class of 2012 had a pre-MBA salary of $63,000 and $175,000 last year.

Altogether, 17 schools have been ranked. On the 11^th spot is Lancaster University Management School, Cass Business School 12^th, Imperial College of Business School 13th, Warwick Business School 14^th, Hult 15^th, SP Jain School of Management, Sydney 16^th, HEC Montreal 17^th.   

Forbes says the ranking is based solely on the median returns on investment achieved by the graduates from the class of 2012. However, the returns for individuals could vary and the results for graduates from business schools outside the top tier are often weak.

The survey for the ranking covered more than 100 schools and 17,500 alumni who were asked about their pre- and post-MBA compensation, career choice and location.

The feedback was received from 25% of those graduates. Those schools from which the response was lesser than 15% of the alumni were excluded from the ranking. Those schools where the alumni had a negative ROI after five years were also not included.

For the ranking, the alumni earnings in their first five years out of business school were compared to the opportunity cost in terms of forgone compensation, tuition and fees.

The total compensation, including salary, bonuses and exercised stock options were measured. It was also assumed that the compensation would have risen half as fast as their post-MBA salary increases had these alumni not attended business school.

Forbes says the One-year programs have an inherent advantage under this methodology due to the lower amount of salary forgone when compared to the 2-year programs.(Image Source:Flickr.com)