The Financial Times has ranked Babson College’s MBA program #49 among U.S. MBA programs and #84 in the world.  Both of these rankings are gains from last year’s #55 and #89 positions respectively and trace improvements in two major areas:

• Babson surveyed graduates’ current salary and salary progression since graduation outperformed the marketplace relative to last year
  
• Babson faculty research productivity improved versus last year (this metric is defined as Babson faculty publication rate in 40 academic and practitioner journals).

“While the particular criteria used for ranking varies with publications, and those used on any survey can always be questioned, it is gratifying to see both of these results in tandem:  our graduates gaining traction in their careers and our faculty contributing to thought leadership.  At the end of the day, those two dimensions are noteworthy metrics that an MBA program can be measured against,” said Allan Cohen, Dean of the Olin Graduate School (Interim) and Edward A. Madden Distinguished Professor of Global Leadership.

The Financial Times methodology is as follows.  Each year, a survey is sent to MBA alumni that graduated three years earlier.  This year, the Babson MBA Class of 2004 was surveyed.  The majority of the ranking (55%) is driven by this survey which specifically assesses this class’ performance in the marketplace since graduation (current salary, salary progression since graduation, and career advancement).  An additional 25% of the ranking is based on student, faculty, and trustee diversity.  The final 20% is labeled “idea generation” by the Financial Times and is comprised of three components:  faculty research productivity, number of doctoral candidates, and % of faculty with doctorates.

In addition, the Financial Times released Top 10 lists for selected academic categories.  Babson was ranked #3 in the Entrepreneurship category, placing behind UCLA and Stanford.  Last year Babson was #1 in this category.

This ranking is based on each schools’ alumni response to a survey question asking each to rate the quality of their MBA program, on a 10 point scale (10 = strong/1 = weak), in 16 academic categories (i.e. Entrepreneurship, Finance, Marketing, OB, Economics, Law, etc.).  The program with the highest alumni rating average is ranked #1.

“For perspective, we have, over the past 6 years, alternated among positions #1, #2, #3, and #4 in this category.  So there is fluctuation year-to-year but essentially our graduates, relative to their peers at other MBA programs, consistently rate our Entrepreneurship program very strong,” said Cohen.

Complete rankings can be viewed at http://rankings.ft.com/rankings/mba/rankings.html