Poets&Quants recently published a review of their composite Full-time MBA rankings and Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business was profiled as one of the schools that had made the biggest jumps in rankings over the past 10 years.
The Poets&Quants study showed that it is extremely tough to break into the top 30, but Scheller has done exactly that over the past decade. In fact, of the 30 schools that had improved their rankings position by at least 10 places over the past decade, Scheller is one of only two schools that has broken into the top 30, jumping 13 spots to no. 26 in the U.S.
Jonathan Clarke, Scheller’s new Senior Associate Dean of Programs, explains that the jump in rankings can be attributed to three main factors.
First is the school’s strategic positioning at the intersection of business and technology. “The nature of work has evolved in drastic ways over the last 10 years, driven by digital disruption, global crises, accelerated connectivity, and increased competition,” Clarke says. “Our MBA grads are equipped with all the right skills to thrive in this type of environment, having focused their curriculum and experiential learning in fields like digital transformation, tech innovations, business analytics, sustainability, and more.”
Furthermore, over the past decade, Scheller’s reputation has grown outside of the southeastern U.S. “Some of the world’s most innovative employers, especially those located outside of the southeast, are very interested in Scheller because they know our grads have what it takes to succeed in a changing, digital-first world,” he says, noting graduates have found increasing success in tech, consulting, supply chain, and finance industries.
Lastly, Clarke says the school has worked to increase the quality and diversity of its student body. “We’ve established strategic partnerships with organizations like Forté, MLT, ROMBA, and TransitionVets to increase our reach to special target audiences, and we’ve seen great success from this,” he says, noting the school has also been able to increase its global reach.
Months after Poets&Quants launched in August of 2010, they produced the site’s first MBA ranking — a composite of the five major rankings from the Financial Times, The Economist, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, and U.S. News and World Report. Since then, the web site has published the ranking every single year for a total of 10 rankings.
See the 10 Years of P&Q MBA Rankings: Who Sits on Top? article for more details.