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The specialization rankings that accompany the release of U.S. News & World Report‘s annual list of leading MBA programs in the U.S. almost looked much different this year.
That’s because the magazine planned to restrict the number of schools that could be ranked according to specialty, by adding a rule that a school must have a full-time MBA program to be considered. The move led to an uproar from the many small schools that rely on their placement in one of 13 categories — from Accounting to Marketing to Project Management — to draw interest year-round from talented applicants.
Fortunately for those schools, U.S. News backtracked — and the specialization rankings once again this year are chock full of those small programs that otherwise get little time in the limelight.
Some programs have a greater interest in the specialization rankings because of long streaks at the top: While Wharton has been the No. 1 Finance school forever, Harvard Business School has always been the top school for Management, and Northwestern Kellogg School of Management and MIT Sloan School of Management have dominated Marketing and Production/Operations, respectively — for smaller programs at the top of a ranking, the recognition is very much a part of their identity, and certainly a part of their long-term marketing strategy.
The biggest streak at the top stayed intact in 2025, as Babson College’s Olin Graduate School of Business retained its place atop the Entrepreneurship ranking, a spot it has now held for an incredible 32 years. “This continued excellence in graduate education is a testament to the global reputation of the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business and our committed faculty of thought leaders and practitioners,” says Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr. “Babson College has proudly served as the flagship institution for entrepreneurship education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels since the early inception of entrepreneurship as an academic discipline.”
Babson wasn’t alone. Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business also extended its impressive streak, placing No. 1 in Accounting for the 19th year in a row. It is the 33rd year McCombs has been in the ranking’s top five. And South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business sits safely once more atop the International Business ranking, securing first place for the 12th straight year. The Moore School has been in the top three in that category for 35 consecutive years.
But 2025 was the end of the road for Michigan State Broad College of Business, which saw its eight-year run atop the Supply Chain/Logistics ranking end as it slipped to second place behind MIT Sloan. Sloan itself also saw a long streak end: It dropped to No. 2 in Business Analytics, behind perennial also-ran Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business.
See pages 2 and 3 for full lists of the specialty ranking winners for the last three years.
U.S. News’ proposed rule change to effectively ban schools that do not have full-time residential MBA programs would have inordinately impacted small programs that rely on the publicity of placing well in the magazine’s 13 specialty rankings — particularly a group of Jesuit schools with no national profile that use their placement in the rankings in their marketing campaigns.
All told, at least 14 business schools, with some 47 individual rankings, would have been negatively impacted, with the Graduate School of Business Administration at Gonzaga University among the most affected by the change. Gonzaga would have lost five U.S. News specialty rankings in Project Management, ranked fourth last year; Entrepreneurship, ranked 11th; and Finance (21), Management (31), and Accounting (41). But instead of being shut out, this year Gonzaga placed 16th in Entrepreneurship, 27th in Accounting and 28th in Finance. (See below for details.)
The four specialty rankings achieved by Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business last year also would have disappeared. Leavey, which has a part-time MBA but lacks a full-time version, made U.S. News‘ lists for Business Analytics (11), Marketing (12), Entrepreneurship (14), and Finance (19) in 2024. Instead, this year, Leavey actually improved its standing, placing eighth in Entrepreneurship, 11th in both Finance and Business Analytics, 14th in Marketing and 33rd in Management.
Seattle University’s Albers School of Business & Economics would have disappeared from three separate rankings due to the change. Last year, the school ranked 16th in both Accounting and Business Analytics and 24th in Finance. This year, Albers placed 16th in Finance, 16th in Business Analytics, and 25th in Accounting. Also dodging the bullet is Marquette University, which ranked 31st in Finance and 35th in Accounting last year and which placed 12th in Marketing, 16th in Management, 13th in Supply Chain, 14th in Business Analytics, 15th in Accounting, and 17th in Finance in 2025.
Also doing well in 2025: the Chaifetz School of Business at Saint Louis University (ninth in International Business, 15th in Entrepreneurship, 16th in Supply Chain) and Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, which landed in seven different rankings, including 10th in International Business and 11th in Entrepreneurship.
U.S. News refined its 2025 rankings methodology in other ways, too, placing greater emphasis on employment outcomes and academic quality. Specifically, the weight of employment rates at graduation was adjusted to 7%, while employment rates three months post-graduation now account for 13% of the overall score. Additionally, the introduction of a “salary by profession” metric, weighted at 10%, offers a nuanced perspective on graduates’ earning potential across various industries.
These methodological changes did influence the rankings of MBA specializations, as programs excelling in placing graduates into high-demand sectors with competitive salaries saw improved standings. Conversely, schools with traditionally strong academic reputations but lower immediate employment outcomes have experienced shifts in their rankings.
Overall, MIT Sloan was the most successful school across the specialization rankings, with four No. 1 spots in Project Management, Information Systems, Production & Operations, and Supply Chain/Logistics. The Sloan School also placed No. 2 in Business Analytics and No. 3 in Entrepreneurship. No school placed in all 13 categories, but two schools came close: the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and Stanford Graduate School of Business, both of which failed to place in Real Estate. The Ross School’s top placement is No. 2 in Management and No. 3 in both Marketing and Project Management; Stanford’s is No. 2 in Entrepreneurship and Nos. in Nonprofit and Production & Operations.
A breakdown of how many schools placed in each category:
See the next pages for all the U.S. News 2025 specialization rankings in the “Quant” and “Poet” categories.
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How U.S. News Ranks The Top U.S. B-Schools By MBA Specialization In 2025 – Poets&Quants
