Manhattan Prep/Kaplan Survey: Business Schools Continue to Doubt MBA Rankings' Prestige, but Few Plan to Quit Them

Results from a new Manhattan Prep/Kaplan survey show that 51 percent of business schools believe that the U.S. News & World Report rankings—the 2026 list was just released this week—"have lost some of their prestige over the last couple of years."* This is essentially unchanged from the 50 percent who held this opinion in Manhattan Prep/Kaplan's 2023 survey, but much higher than the 37 percent who held this view in their 2022 survey. Admissions officers in the latest survey shared the following opinions:

• "I am less confident in the way business schools are ranked in the past few years. There seems to be more weight put on the wrong criteria."
• "The rankings themselves are OK in broad strokes to determine which schools are top tier, but the individual ranking numbers are mostly irrelevant. Rankings are gamed at some level by every school seeking to improve/maintain their ranking. We participate mostly because it gets our school into the database. So if prospective students search for us on a rankings website, we will at least appear."
• "Business school rankings methodology should be set with more input by business schools and employers…More factors and metrics that reflect the improvement students make in their careers from what they learned at the school they attended should be used."

Despite most survey respondents thinking the rankings have diminished in prestige, few schools have actually stopped participating. Just 5 percent say they are considering quitting the rankings, according to the survey. One admissions officer from one of the few schools that have already withdrawn from the rankings said they stopped submitting data on their full-time and part-time programs because it was "a waste of time," citing bias in favor of programs in major metro areas where higher salaries are easier to secure.

Stacey Koprince, director of content and curriculum, Manhattan Prep, which is owned by Kaplan, said:

"For business school leaders, MBA rankings shape everything from student recruitment to employer partnerships and alumni support. Some admissions officers joke they stay up late the night before the rankings go live, unable to sleep, knowing their inboxes will be flooded by morning with either delight or dismay from business school leaders. While many acknowledge the rankings' flaws, most still participate, underscoring their influence in determining applicants' final decisions. We advise students that the true value lies not in the rankings themselves, but in the detailed data each school publishes. Look closely at the metrics that matter most to you—starting salary, employment rates, and geographic placement, for example—to make choices aligned with your long-term goals."

Contact [email protected] to speak with a business school admissions expert.

*Admissions officers from 76 full-time business schools across the U.S. were polled by e-mail between July and August 2025. Included are 18 of the top 100 programs as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Findings were rounded to the nearest whole number.

About Kaplan

Kaplan, Inc. is a global educational services company that helps individuals and institutions advance their goals in an ever-changing world. Our broad portfolio of solutions helps students and professionals further their education and careers, universities and educational institutions attract and support students, and businesses maximize employee recruitment, retention, and development. Stanley Kaplan founded our company in 1938 with a mission to expand educational opportunities for students of all backgrounds. Today, our thousands of employees working in 27 countries/regions continue Stanley's mission as they serve about 1.2 million students and professionals, 15,000 corporate clients, and 3,300 schools, school districts, colleges, and universities worldwide. Kaplan is a subsidiary of the Graham Holdings Company (NYSE:GHC). Learn more at kaplan.com.

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Press: Russell Schaffer, [email protected]

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