How do Executive MBA Rankings Work?

Several ranking systems cover executive MBA programs, and the two that US applicants actually read work in opposite directions. The Financial Times EMBA ranking gets 52% of its weight from surveying alumni three years post-graduation, with salary and salary increase alone accounting for 31%. The US News executive MBA ranking has no salary data, no employment data, and no admissions data – it’s compiled entirely from ratings by officials at other schools.

If you’ve been comparing EMBA programs and finding the two ranking lists impossible to square, that’s why. For how these fit alongside the full-time rankings, start with our overview of MBA rankings.

Which Rankings Cover Executive MBA Programs?

The Financial Times publishes an annual global EMBA ranking of the top 100 programs. 129 programs participated in the most recent cycle, including 11 joint programs run by more than one school. 

US News produces an executive MBA ranking as one of its specialty rankings, and covers 126 schools in its ranking system. QS, Fortune and Poets & Quants publish EMBA lists too, but the FT and US News rankings are the two that come up most often with US applicants.

How the US News EMBA Ranking Works

This is going to be pretty short, because there isn’t much to it. The US News executive MBA ranking is based entirely on ratings by senior school officials. In essence: US News asks deans of schools what they think of a different school’s program. Salary, placement, test scores, class profile, and return on investment are not accounted for in the US News ranking.

I could spew the details of the ins-and-outs of how, exactly, this survey is conducted, but what’s most relevant is that it’s a large, well-organized opinion survey at the end of the day. Nothing a school actually does for its EMBA students is factored into the score.

How the FT EMBA Ranking Works

The Financial Times executive MBA rankings works a little differently. FT surveys alumni of executive MBA programs three years after they finish. For the most recent edition, that meant people who completed their programs in 2022. 4,465 responded to the survey, which is about a 44% response rate.

A school needs at least 20% of its surveyed alumni to reply, with a minimum of 20 responses, to be considered for the ranking. Participation is voluntary and happens at the school’s request.

Alumni responses drive six criteria worth 52%. School-reported data drives ten criteria worth 38%. Faculty research publications account for the remaining 10%. The full breakdown is below:

Salaries are converted to US dollars using the IMF’s purchasing power parity rates, making the reported salaries comparable because they measure the purchasing power of a graduate’s salary.

Why These Rankings Are Shakier Than the Full-Time Ones

One of Them Contains No Data

The US News EMBA ranking is a survey of what school officials think of each other’s programs. 

Executive MBA programs are, by design, less visible than full-time ones. They run on weekends, evenings, and serve a more local cohort the majority of the time. Their students are already senior and mostly stay with their employers. There’s no recruiting season, no visible placement report, and far less public information about them. That makes them unusually hard to evaluate from another campus, which is exactly what this ranking is based off of.

The Salary Numbers Describe People Who Were Already Doing Well

The FT’s approach is much more grounded, and 31% on salary is a real measurement of a real thing. But think about who’s being measured.

EMBA students typically arrive with a decade or more of experience and are often already in management. Many are sponsored by employers who planned to promote them anyway. A salary increase measured from before the program to three years after captures the degree’s effect, the promotion the employer might have already been planning, and the ordinary progression of a senior career, all mixed together with no way to separate them.

To be fair, that’s not a flaw the FT could easily fix. But it’s a limit on what the number can tell you, and you should keep it in mind when a school advertises a large percentage gain.

You Only See Schools That Want to Be Seen

To get onto the FT list, you need to ask to be put on it. If a program doesn’t want to be measured, it isn’t measured. And even among those that participate, if you miss the alumni response threshold, you might still not get on the list. So the top 100 requires a heavy caveat that these are programs that chose to be ranked and got enough graduates to fill out a survey. There are, assuredly, fantastic programs out there that didn’t make the list, just because of this initial filter.

Neither Ranking Looks at Cost

An EMBA is often one of the most expensive degrees in business education, and a lot of students pay part of it themselves. The FT’s full-time MBA ranking includes a value-for-money criterion, but its EMBA counterpart doesn’t. US News doesn’t measure cost in its EMBA ranking either. On the question most EMBA applicants actually stress over – whether the price is worth it – both rankings are silent.

What Actually Matters When You’re Comparing EMBA Programs

Check whether you need an entrance exam. Neither ranking uses test scores, and many EMBA programs waive the requirement entirely for candidates with enough seniority. Others still want a score, and a lot of them accept the Executive Assessment instead of the GMAT. The EA is a 90-minute exam built specifically for applicants to executive programs.

Work out the schedule against your job. Alternating weekends, week-long residencies, and international modules are all frequently part of an executive MBA, and depending on the program, it can take quite a while to finish it. The Financial Times only ranks executive programs that finish within three years, which tells you something about the intended pace.

Ask who your classmates will be. This is often the most important part of an executive MBA. As these programs are designed for those with more seniority, your class will be composed of seasoned managers, directors, and entrepreneurs who bring decades of knowledge in their field. Ask each program who tends to be drawn to it.

For the broader case on how much any ranking deserves to steer your future goals, we’ve made our full case here.