If you’re weighing an MBA, LinkedIn has released its annual global ranking of the top 100 MBA programs, which the business networking platform says is entirely based on real outcomes of alumni from these programs.
From what LinkedIn has seen from professionals on its platform, the degree has staying power across diverse career paths. Since 2010, the percentage of global senior leaders and entrepreneurs with an MBA on LinkedIn has surged by 32% and 87%, respectively.
“The world of work is changing faster than ever, and it’s not always easy to know what the right next step looks like,” said Ashley Botarelli, senior managing editor at LinkedIn News. “For an increasing number of professionals—including many of my own connections—an MBA has become a way to navigate that uncertainty, offering a clear opportunity to build in-demand skills and a stronger network.”
Here is the methodology LinkedIn said it used to put together its ranking:
Our methodology uses LinkedIn data to rank full-time MBA programs based on five pillars: hiring and demand; ability to advance; network strength; leadership potential; and gender diversity. Hiring and demand tracks job placement rates and labor market demand, focusing on recent graduate cohorts from 2019-2024. This assessment is based on LinkedIn hiring data and recruiter InMail outreach data. Ability to advance tracks promotions among recent cohorts. It also tracks how quickly all past alumni have reached director or VP-level leadership roles. This assessment is based on standardized job titles. Network strength tracks network depth, or how connected alumni of the same program are to each other; network quality of the recent cohorts (2019-2024), measured by average connections alumni have with individuals in director-level positions or above; and network growth rate of the recent cohort before and after graduation. This assessment is based on member connection data. Leadership potential tracks the percentage of alumni with post-MBA entrepreneurship or C-suite experience. Finally, Gender diversity measures gender parity within recent graduate cohorts.
The four pillars focused on professional outcomes each carry a weight of 1.0; the gender parity pillar is weighted at 0.5. Most pillars are made up of two metrics, with the exception of gender diversity, which is based on one metric, and network strength, which is based on three metrics.
To be eligible, MBA programs must be full-time programs and accredited by AACSB or Equis. Programs must have at least 1,500 total alumni, with at least 400 of them graduating within the recent cohort (2019-2024). We exclude executive MBAs, part-time MBAs, and certificate-based MBAs from our analysis. We also exclude all programs based in mainland China from our analysis, as our data does not capture alumni based in China. Depending on the specific metric in question, our methodology either encompasses all alumni or recent graduate cohorts, as defined by those who graduated between 2019 and 2024. This analysis represents the world seen through the lens of LinkedIn data, drawn from the anonymized and aggregated profile information of LinkedIn’s members around the world.
Additional Insights:
Data reflects aggregated public member data from active LinkedIn profiles and includes alumni profiles associated with the program on LinkedIn. Job titles data measures the most common job titles members indicated on their profile for their first job after graduating from their MBA. Locations data measures the most common locations associated with a member’s first job after their MBA. Most notable skills measure how frequently a skill appears within a program, while also accounting for how rare it is across all programs.
The following is LinkedIn’s global list of the top 100 MBA schools in 2025:
- Stanford Graduate School of Business (Stanford University)
- Harvard Business School (Harvard University)
- INSEAD
- The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
- Indian School of Business
- Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University)
- Sloan School of Management (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Tuck School of Business (Dartmouth College)
- Columbia Business School (Columbia University)
- London Business School (University of London)
- Booth School of Business (University of Chicago)
- Saïd Business School (University of Oxford)
- The Fuqua School of Business (Duke University)
- Yale School of Management (Yale University)
- Haas School of Business (University of California, Berkeley)
- Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
- Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
- Darden School of Business (University of Virginia)
- Johnson Graduate School of Management, SC Johnson College of Business (Cornell University)
- Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
- Stern School of Business (New York University)
- IESE Business School (University of Navarra)
- IMD
- HEC Paris
- Goizueta Business School (Emory University)
- Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
- Anderson School of Management (UCLA)
- Marshall School of Business (University of Southern California)
- ESSEC Business School
- Judge Business School (University of Cambridge)
- Hult International Business School
- Ross School of Business (University of Michigan)
- Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
- F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business (Babson College)
- IE Business School (IE University)
- Indian Institute of Management, Indore
- Imperial Business School (Imperial College London)
- Owen Graduate School of Management (Vanderbilt University)
- ESCP Business School
- Simon Business School (University of Rochester)
- McCombs School of Business (The University of Texas at Austin)
- Kenan-Flagler Business School (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
- Olin Business School (Washington University in St. Louis)
- EDHEC Business School
- Tepper School of Business (Carnegie Mellon University)
- Esade
- SDA Bocconi School of Management (Università Bocconi)
- Cox School of Business (Southern Methodist University)
- Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto)
- Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)
- Bayes Business School (City, University of London)
- Ivey Business School (Western University)
- HKUST Business School (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
- TIAS School for Business and Society (Tilburg University)
- McDonough School of Business (Georgetown University)
- Questrom School of Business (Boston University)
- Smith School of Business (Queen’s University)
- Amsterdam Business School (University of Amsterdam)
- Warwick Business School (University of Warwick)
- POLIMI Graduate School of Management (MIP Politecnico di Milano)
- Jones Graduate School of Business (Rice University)
- University of St. Gallen
- Graziadio Business School (Pepperdine University)
- Cranfield School of Management (Cranfield University)
- Emlyon Business School
- Alliance Manchester Business School (The University of Manchester)
- Melbourne Business School (University of Melbourne)
- Mendoza College of Business (University of Notre Dame)
- EADA Business School
- Trinity Business School (Trinity College Dublin)
- Gabelli School of Business (Fordham University)
- NUS Business School (National University of Singapore)
- Merage School of Business (University of California, Irvine)
- Grenoble Ecole de Management
- Crummer Graduate School of Business (Rollins College)
- HEC Montréal (Université de Montréal)
- Wisconsin School of Business (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
- Schulich School of Business (York University)
- Copenhagen Business School
- Zicklin School of Business (Baruch College)
- AGSM @ UNSW Business School (University of New South Wales)
- Rutgers Business School (Rutgers University)
- Scheller College of Business (Georgia Institute of Technology)
- Coller School of Management (Tel Aviv University)
- Lubin School of Business (Pace University)
- Foster School of Business (University of Washington)
- D’Amore-McKim School of Business (Northeastern University)
- Desautels Faculty of Management (McGill University)
- George Washington School of Business (The George Washington University)
- Terry College of Business (The University of Georgia)
- Carey Business School (The Johns Hopkins University)
- Carroll School of Management (Boston College)
- Carlson School of Management (University of Minnesota)
- Warrington College of Business (University of Florida)
- Kelley School of Business (Indiana University Bloomington)
- UBC Sauder School of Business (University of British Columbia)
- Fox School of Business (Temple University)
- Whitman School of Management (Syracuse University)
- Miami Herbert Business School (University of Miami)
- INCAE Business School
The ranking also includes most common job titles, most notable skills, and top locations for each school, as well as notable alumni.
Photo credit: Marcelo Mollaretti/Shutterstock
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Tags: Accounting, LinkedIn, MBA, Small Business
