Fortune Magazine recently released its inaugural Best MBA Programs rankings list and the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business ranked among the top 25 best full-time MBA programs in the nation. The program came in No. 24 overall and No. 8 among public institutions.
Fortune looked for programs that not only see their graduates head into good jobs right out of the gate (with high starting salaries) but also have a track record of placing alumni into the highest echelons of corporate America. “Salary, school brand, and leadership trajectory: That’s the core of our ranking,” explains Fortune representative Lance Lambert.
Fortune used three distinct component scores for its rankings: outcomes score, brand score, and Fortune 1000 score.
The outcomes score, carrying a weight of 65 percent, is based on the starting salaries of Class of 2020 MBA graduates. In addition, Fortune looked at each school’s job placement rates for its 2020 class.
For the brand score, with a weight of 25 percent, Fortune enlisted Ipso, a brand polling agency, to survey over 2,500 professionals. The methodology used to calculate this score is similar to ones used for evaluating a company’s brand strength. The scoring results produced a business school’s attitudinal equity (AE) measurement or “how much a group of people want to recruit from the university,” according to Ipso.
The Fortune 1000 score looked at each school’s MBA alumni who are C-suite executives at Fortune 1000 companies. This score carried a 10 percent weight and identifies schools with a track record of developing accomplished leaders.
“What is most interesting about Fortune’s ranking is that it focuses on measuring the value of the career impact an MBA produces,” said Katie Lloyd, Associate Dean. “Scheller is home to the No. 2 ranked career services center in the world, and we have a strong track record for putting our students on a strong leadership trajectory at the world’s most innovative companies.”
See the complete list of Fortune Best MBA Programs.