The Wall Street Journal’s first Accelerated MBA rankings have Babson’s One-Year MBA program ranked #5 in the world and #2 in the U.S., only trailing Northwestern ranked at #4.  The top three schools were IE Business School (Spain), IMD (Switzerland), and Cranfield (England). 

The ranking was created to assess how graduate schools “shape and build strong managers who can operate in a global environment.”

The ranking is based on surveys of students and alumni of each qualified graduate school.  School qualification criteria included:

·        accreditation by AACSB and Equis, the main business-school accrediting bodies in the U.S. and Europe

·        a minimum of four previous graduating classes

·        an international student body

·        enrollment of 12 students or more

·        school's students had to have an average of at least three years of work experience

·        each school had to reach a 20% response rate among students and alumni.

The student survey was of Babson’s 2009 graduating One-Year class and measured satisfaction with the entire student experience.  Specifically, the student survey included 53 questions—13 on program quality, 20 on applicable skills, and 20 on leadership and management skills.  The alumni survey of Babson’s One-Year Class of 2007 included 48 questions—11 on the specific impact the program has had on a career, 17 on the usefulness of the skills taught and overall quality of the program, and 20 on the usefulness of leadership and management skills taught.  To calculate the final ranking, the student and alumni scores were added up, with the student scores given a weight of 60% and the alumni scores given a weight of 40%.

“We are very proud of this accomplishment and are especially pleased as this recognizes the hard work and dedication of our faculty and staff that truly make Babson such a special place for our students,” said Dean Raghu Tadepalli.  “It also confirms that we are consistent with the graduate school’s mission:  to educate students to recognize and define the changes critical to growing enterprises in a global marketplace.”

Rankings can be found at:  www.wsj.com.