from DSSResources.comNorthwestern's Kellogg School tops BusinessWeek's list of the best Executive MBA ProgramsNEW YORK, NY, Oct. 13, 2005 -- In BusinessWeek's 2005 ranking of the Best Executive MBA programs, Northwestern University's Kellogg School retained the No.1 spot. For the third consecutive time, grads lauded the Kellogg program's emphasis on teamwork and its rich learning environment. Rounding out the top five were University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (No.2), University of Chicago (No.3), the University of Michigan, a school newly considered for ranking this year that catapulted into the No.4 slot, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which held onto its No.5 ranking. By most measures the past two years have not been terrific ones for EMBA programs. Student satisfaction, as measured by the BusinessWeek survey, has not recovered from the beating it took in 2003, when a difficult economy and weak job growth made a high-priced EMBA degree seem like a questionable choice, especially for the growing number of students who were paying their own way. Amid the turmoil, three highly ranked programs fell substantially this year. Students in Duke's weekend program griped about a lack of leadership and ethics training, a focus on theory over practical knowledge, and the school's inability to solve logistical problems such as travel and dining-driving it down seven spots, to No.11. The University of California at Los Angeles' Anderson School of Management, which also dropped seven spots, to No.14, came under fire for a lack of instruction in soft skills, especially leadership and team dynamics. And at Columbia University, students were highly critical of the program's limited course offerings, classes that provided highlights but little or no substantive knowledge, and poorly prepared classmates. The one- time No.15 program has fallen out of the ranking altogether. BusinessWeek's List of The Top 25 EMBA Programs 2005 2003 2005 2003 Rank School Rank Rank School Rank 1 Northwestern (Kellogg) 1 14 UCLA (Anderson) 7 Evanston, Ill. Los Angeles 2 Pennsylvania (Wharton) 3 15 IESE (University of NA Philadelphia Navarra) Barcelona, Spain 3 Chicago Chicago 3 16 SMU (Cox) Dallas 18 4 Michigan Ann Arbor NA 17 Cornell (Johnson) 14 Ithaca, N.Y. 5 UNC (Kenan-Flagler) 5 18 Purdue (Krannert) West 16 Chapel Hill, N.C. Lafayette, Ind. 6 Emory (Goizueta) Atlanta 10 19 NYU (Stern) New York 13 7 IMD Lausanna, Switzerland 6 20 Notre Dame (Mendoza) NA South Bend, Ind. 8 USC (Marshall) 12 21 Queen's Kingston, Ont. NA Los Angeles 9 Duke (Fuqua-Global) 9 22 Western Ontario (Ivey) 25 Durham, N.C. Mississauga, Ont. 10 Georgetown (McDonough) 11 23 Pepperdine (Graziadio) 19 Washington, D.C. Culver City, Calif. 11 Duke (Fuqua-Weekend) 4 24 Vanderbilt (Owen) Nashville 20 Durham, N.C. 12 Texas (McCombs) Austin 8 25 London Business School 23 London 13 Ohio State (Fisher) NA Columbus |