Scheller students in class at George Institute of Technology. Alumni rated the school the second highest out of 110 schools in our ranking.
TOP SCHOOLS BY CATEGORY
Not surprising, the top five finishers in each category are typically highly-ranked programs overall. But there is some variation in the alumni-rated Academic Experience.
No. 15-ranked Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller School of Business finished second in Academic Experience. The experience category is based on an alumni survey sent to 2023 graduates (weighted 50%) as well as past surveys from the Class of 2022 and Class of 2021 (each weighted 25%). On 15 survey questions getting at the heart of the student experience at Scheller, 2023 alumni rated it an average 9.5 out of 10 possible points. Further, more than 90% of respondents indicated their first job after graduation was in their desired industry and/or company. 2023 alumni rated the school the highest on five of 20 individual survey questions.
“Having internships during my college experience was one of the most valuable parts of my growth … But what made these experiences especially important was the role my professors and advisors played. They didn’t just teach courses; they actively invested in my success. They helped me identify opportunities that aligned with my strengths, connected me with companies, reviewed my résumé, and encouraged me to go after roles I might not have pursued on my own,” a 2023 alumnus wrote.
Alumni from ranking first-timer Susquehanna University’s Sigmund Weis School of Business (No. 56 overall) rated the school the third best for experience out of 110 ranked programs. The four-year program in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, combines a liberal arts foundation with an unusually strong emphasis on experiential learning. Every business student earns Bloomberg certification, completes a capstone project, and participates in a study-away program. The school guarantees students the opportunity to complete an internship in a foreign country.
Students are also supported by a mentoring program that pairs them with two professional mentors and a dedicated faculty advisor, while programs such as the student-managed River Hawk Fund and the school’s semester-long London program give undergraduates early exposure to global business practice. It is also the only business school in United States to offer an undergraduate major in Luxury Brand Marketing & Management along with 10 other majors to choose from.
2026’s HIGH RISERS
Four schools had double-digit rises in our ranking in 2026 compared to the prior year, but none rose higher than Adelphi University’s Robert B. Willumstad School of Business. It rose 17 points to No. 85.
The school, located in Garden City, New York, jumped from 97th to 83rd in the Admissions Category and from 103rd to 79th in Career Outcomes.
All Adelphi business students take part in the Willumstad Winning Edge, a pair of one-credit courses embedded in the school’s revised undergraduate core curriculum and designed to build career readiness from the start. The program pairs students with both a career-readiness advisor and a faculty advisor while guiding them through workshops, professional development activities, and hands-on experiences. Students who actively participate are guaranteed a mentorship, job shadow, or internship opportunity, giving them early exposure to the professional world while still in school.
University of Washington Foster School of Business in Seattle had the second biggest jump at 13. It regained all the ground it lost in 2025’s ranking when it fell 13 spots to No. 32, mostly due to an out-of-character alumni survey. The school slid from No. 44 to No. 65 in Academic Experience in 2025 based on that survey, which was weighted 50% in our three-year weighted average of alumni scores. This year’s more favorable alumni survey helped even out the data, bringing the school back up to No. 19, it’s same rank as in 2024.
A total of 110 schools participated in 2026’s ranking, the most ever and six more than were ranked in 2025. That includes 13 schools that did not participate last year as well as five schools that were ranked last year but opted not to fill out our institutional survey for 2026. That has shaken results of the ranking somewhat, particularly toward the middle and lower ends.
2026 METHODOLOGY
P&Q’s undergraduate business school ranking is based on three categories: Admissions Standards, Academic Experience, and Career Outcomes. Each category is given an equal weight in the final score of 33.3%.
We made a few adjustments to the Admissions category for 2026 to better measure the academic strength of incoming classes. The most significant change is the removal of a metric measuring the percentage of students in the incoming class who graduated in the top 10% of their high school class. Fewer schools now collect or report this information, making it less useful as a consistent measure across programs.
Admissions data we did use in the ranking is gathered through our institutional survey that each school completed between October 2025 and January 2026. Career data is also collected through the institutional survey. (See our full methodology)
Academic Experience data comes entirely from the alumni survey, also administered between October and January. This year we surveyed students from the Class of 2023, or those graduating between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.
To get full credit for the data collected in the alumni survey, we require a 10% or higher response rate from the surveyed class. We award schools their alumni data based on a sliding scale reflecting their alumni response rates. For example, a 10% or higher response rate earns 100% of alumni data, a 9.43% response rate earns 94.3% of the total alumni data, and so on.
A TROVE OF DATA ONLY FOUND HERE
Poets&Quants has always considered this project more than just a ranking. With thousands of data points collected from schools and alumni, it’s essentially the largest data reporting project we undertake.
This year, like all previous years, we gathered loads of interesting data reflecting the state of undergraduate business education in the U.S. For example, it’s still very difficult to get into a top business school. Ten schools had an acceptance rate of 10% or lower for students entering in the Fall of 2025. The Wharton School was again the hardest school to get into, with an acceptance rate of 3.6%
Five schools admitted classes that had an average SAT score of at least 1500, with New York University’s Stern School of Business leading the way with an average score of 1551.
And, eight schools reported first-year compensation packages of more than $100K for 2025 graduates. That includes the average first-year salary and signing bonuses, as well as the percent of graduates receiving a signing bonus. Wharton grads led the way with an adjusted compensation of $122,365.
As always, we will publish articles with greater detail on many more metrics in the days and weeks ahead. We strive to offer the most comprehensive guide possible to prospective business school students evaluating their preferred schools. Some of these metrics are used directly in our methodology, some are not. Stay tuned for in-depth stories on acceptance rates, total compensation for first-year graduates, cost of top-ranked b-schools and more.
All 110 undergraduate business programs ranked by Poets&Quants are at the leading edge of business education, delivering a learning experience that transforms students’ sense of who they are and what they can do in the world.
The full ranking is presented in the following pages, along with a more detailed look at how every school fared in our three ranking categories.
Page 3: Admission Standards rank
Page 4: Career Outcomes rank
Page 5: Academic Experience rank
Page 6: Final P&Q ranking of 2026
NEXT PAGE: Admission Standards
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