The results of the first edition of the 360° MBA Ranking are here and they bring a revolutionary shift. Unimy’s innovative approach to rankings transforms how MBA candidates can identify their ideal business school, considering both professional aspirations and personal fit.
Recognizing that the true value of an MBA lies in the personal growth journey it offers, Unimy has developed a ranking methodology that prioritizes individual candidate needs.
The evolution of MBA program selection
It all started in 2018, when the global MBA matching platform Unimy developed a unique online set of resources for business school selection. To create the student-centered ranking, Unimy leaned on the experience of its parent company Advent Group, which has been connecting over 600,000 MBA candidates with business schools for 20 years.
The new ranking’s distinguishing feature allows users to customize their ranking criteria, including a groundbreaking School Culture Fit assessment. “We incorporated the Culture Fit into our ranking to enable candidates to identify schools not only on ROI and other existing rankings data, but also on cultural match,” Christophe Coutat, Founder and CEO of Advent Group, recently highlighted.
The feature enables prospective MBA applicants to find the school environment that will transform their studies into a memorable and inspiring journey. “School culture is like company culture – it is unique. You spend one or two years in a business school, and then you are the school’s ambassador for life. So, the school’s culture has to resonate with your values, style and ethics,” Christophe Coutat added.
How the 360° MBA Ranking works
Business school candidates from any point in the world can easily and quickly generate a personalized, top-100 MBA ranking based on six key performance factors:
- Acceptance rate
- Career outcomes
- Culture fit
- Diversity
- Faculty
The ranking tool uses data about these MBA aspects from the most reputable ranking sources to date – the Financial Times and US News. It then combines it with Unimy’s proprietary cultural assessment, which draws from organizational psychology research and comprehensive surveys of business school communities. The result is a highly-personalized resource for each candidate and it brings added value to prospective MBA students.
Widespread use by diverse MBA candidates
Candidates online can rearrange their existing ranking list in ways that better reflect what they are looking for in an MBA program. Detailed data analysis of these user preferences over the past year has now resulted in a new, candidate-driven, global ranking of business schools.
“We compile, aggregate and analyze all the personalized ranking results over the year. This enables us to publish a global Unimy MBA ranking, based on candidate preferences, and not only a personal ranking for each user,” Christophe Coutat said.
By August 2024, the platform attracted professionals from:
- 97 countries
- 30 industries
- 150+ professional roles (39% in management or C-suite level)
Notably, school culture emerged as the second most important factor after career outcomes, with 60% of 2024 candidates including it in their criteria.
In 2025, Unimy is also set to publish rankings organized by categories based on candidates’ geography, demography, and professional background.
The 2024 Global MBA Ranking
The inaugural Global 360° MBA Ranking by Unimy, released in September 2024, evaluates 120 programs across 17 countries in America, Asia, Australia, and Europe.
Leading study destinations:
- Spain
- USA
- UK
- PR China
- France
Top 25 schools for 2024:
- IESE Business School, Spain
- Cornell University: Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, USA
- London Business School, UK
- University of Pennsylvania: The Wharton School, USA
- CEIBS, China
- Duke University: Fuqua School of Business, USA
- Northwestern University: The Kellogg School of Management, USA
- MIT: Sloan School of Management, USA
- ESCP Business School, France
- Yale University: School of Management, USA
- Dartmouth College: Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, USA
- Columbia University: Columbia Business School, USA
- University of Cambridge: Judge Business School, UK
- HEC Paris, France
- Stanford University: Stanford Graduate School of Business, USA
- Harvard Business School (HBS), USA
- University of California Berkeley: Haas School of Business, USA
- University of Virginia: Darden School of Business, USA
- New York University: Stern School of Business, USA
- The University of Chicago: Booth School of Business, USA
- Imperial College Business School, UK
- INSEAD, France
- IMD Business School, Switzerland
- Georgetown University: McDonough School of Business, USA
- SDA Bocconi: School of Management, Italy
This innovative ranking system represents a significant shift in business school selection, providing value to both prospective students and institutions. As schools seek to differentiate themselves, Unimy’s approach offers data-driven insights into candidate preferences and school culture, creating a more informed decision-making process for future business leaders.
Generate your personalized MBA ranking at www.unimy.com/ranking
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