The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School tied London Business School for #1 in the 2011 FT rankings.
Three of the top five business schools in the Financial Times’ 2011 rankings were from the United States: University of Pennsylvania Wharton (#1) Harvard Business School (#3) and Stanford University GSB (#4).
That’s not to say European schools didn’t feature prominently. London Business School tied Penn’s Wharton in the top spot, and Insead tied with Stanford for 4th.
The rest of the top 10 schools were:
#6 – Hong Kong UST Business School
#7 – Columbia Business School (US)
#8 – IE Business School (Spain)
#9 – Iese Business School (Spain) & MIT Sloan School of Management (USA)
Most schools finished fairly close to their 3-year average ranking, save for Hong Kong UST, which advanced to 6th from and average 3-year position of 10th.
Wharton and London Business School tied for first for different reasons. Wharton earned top marks for its high graduate placement rate (84%), while London Business School boasted an average salary increase of 132% among graduates.
In another interesting result, newcomer Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, placed 11th, with graduates boasting an average salary of USD 174,000 three years after graduating.
This mirrors a larger trend in employment, whereby Indian executives are increasingly sought after by multinational employers. In that sense it’s also interesting to note that the Indian School of Business placed 13th in the 2011 rankings.