Bloomberg Businessweek Best B-Schools Ranking inludes international MBA programs which can be located anywhere in the world, but classes must be taught primarily in English. Regional pages for Europe, Asia, Canada, and the U.S. are displayed instead of  presenting a global ranking with schools from all regions. It is assumed that this allows for more detailed intra-regional index rankings. At the same time, prospective students are still provided the opportunity to explore differences among schools in all regions.

The ranking is based on surveys of students, alumni and employers that recruited MBA graduates for full-time positions. Minimum thresholds for survey response rates were based on the size of a school’s graduating and alumni classes. In the 2019 edition of the ranking 26,804 surveys were collected. The ranking uses four indexes:

Compensation Index 37.3%

The following measures are used: pay right after graduation, what alumni are earning, percentage of students employed three months after graduation, percentage of a class receiving a signing bonus, and size of bonuses.

Networking Index 25.7%

The ranking focuses on the quality of networks being built by classmates; students’ interactions with alumni; successes of the career-services office; quality and breadth of alumni-to-alumni interactions; and the school’s halo, or brand power, from recruiters’ viewpoints.

Learning Index 21.3%

The quality, depth, and range of instruction is explored, as well as the curriculum applicability to real-world business situations; the degree of emphasis on innovation, problem-solving, and strategic thinking; the level of inspiration and support from instructors; class size; and collaboration.

Entrepreneurship Index 15.7%

Alumni assessed whether their school took entrepreneurship as seriously as other career paths and rated the quality of training they received to start a small business or startup. Recruiters ranked schools according to whether graduates showed exceptional entrepreneurial skills and drive.

To help readers customize and explore, filtering tools were created to sort schools by a range of GMAT scores and salaries, geographic preferences, and industry choices. Easy comparisons among schools is also provided by the ranking.