U.S. News and World Report

U.S. News and World Report (USN) has been ranking American graduate business programs since 1990, and colleges since 1983. Sometime in the early years of 2000, USN started including part-time MBA programs among their specialty rankings. In 2010 they changed their methodology, creating a separate peer assessment survey just for part-time MBA programs, and in 2012 they reduced the weight of peer assessment to 50% and added in a number of other criteria. The ranking of about 250 schools is published annually in late March or early April.

50% Peer assessment
A national survey of business school deans and directors of over 300 AACSB-accredited programs that enroll a minimum of 20 students; each program rated on a one-to-five Likert scale

35% Admissions
GMAT average, undergraduate GPA and work experience

15% Enrollment
Percentage of school's total MBA enrollment that is part-time

Pros:

• Straightforward and easy to grasp
• Scores are provided in addition to rank; ties are allowed; cluster and gaps visible

Cons:

• Deans and program directors likely to know institutions more than actual programs; may reflect historical reputation more than current condition

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Bloomberg Businessweek

Bloomberg Businessweek (formerly BusinessWeek) has been ranking full-time MBA programs for over two decades, but it did not begin ranking part-time MBA programs until 2007. The ranking of about 70 schools is published biennially in odd-numbered years in early November.

40% Student assessment of program
Graduating students complete an online survey of 50 questions, evaluating many aspects of the program

30% Admissions, program, faculty
Equally weighted: size of core classes, elective offerings, completion rate, GMAT average, work experience, percentage of tenured faculty

15% Student assessment of goal achievement
Students assess degree to which program helped them to achieve goals

15% Salary
Percentage increase from pre- to post-MBA salary

Pros:

• Captures opinions of actual students
• Many data points are published in the ranking tables (salary increase, cost, GMAT scores etc.)

Cons:

• Survey very new; hasn’t “solidified”; highly volatile from year to year
• Index scores not published; ties not allowed; clustering and gaps hidden
• No attempt to check volatility by weighting against prior surveys
• Student opinion easily swayed by popular or unpopular changes that may have little to do with program quality or academic rigor; high weighting only exacerbates issue