The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) remains at the top of the Bloomberg Businessweek ranking of best business schools within the United States for the seventh year in a row. While the 2025–2026 ranking was perhaps unsurprising in that regard, the rest of the top ten saw some changes. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was ranked second this year, up five spots from the 2024–2025 ranking. The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, had one of the most notable leaps of the year, from 14th in 2024–2025 to third this year. The top five is rounded out by Harvard Business School and the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, which were sixth and third last year, respectively.
Bloomberg Businessweek uses five criteria for its rankings, three of which—Learning, Entrepreneurship, and Networking—are based on survey responses from students. The other two criteria—Compensation and Inclusion—are based on such school-specific data as median salaries, bonus compensation, race and ethnicity, and gender.
Stanford GSB was ranked first for Networking and Entrepreneurship, second for Compensation, and 32nd for Inclusion. Wharton, which stands at second overall, was ranked first in Compensation. Interestingly, the school that was ranked first in Inclusion, the George Washington University School of Business, received a relatively low overall ranking at 56th. Similarly, the top three schools for Learning, where Stanford GSB was ranked seventh, stand outside the top 20 overall: the Mason School of Business at William and Mary, the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, and the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University were ranked 36th, 23rd, and 35th, respectively, overall.
