UVA Darden Lands in US News’ Top 3 for Graduate Compensation, Rises in MBA Rankings
By Dave Hendrick
The University of Virginia Darden School of Business continues to show positive momentum in key rankings, moving up in multiple categories in U.S. News and World Report’s Best Business Schools 2020 rankings.
U.S. News named the Darden School the No. 12 MBA program in the United States, up one spot from the previous year’s ranking. The Darden School is No. 3 among public business schools.
Darden also performed well on salary and career success metrics. With a mean starting salary and bonus of $160,711, the School’s Class of 2018 ranked No. 3 for highest compensation among all U.S. business school graduating classes, up one spot from the previous year and trailing only the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Wharton School. The Class of 2018 earned the No. 6 rank for highest percentage of graduates employed by graduation.
Highlights from U.S. News specialty rankings included:
- 4 — MBA for Management
- 13 — MBA for Entrepreneurship
- 14 — Executive MBA program
The ranking from U.S. News caps a positive year of rankings news for the Darden School, with superlative rankings from The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, Financial Times and The Princeton Review. Darden’s full-time MBA rose in every ranking of programs in which the School participates, and moved firmly into the Top 10 in key rankings, including to No. 8 in the U.S. in The Economist and No. 9 in the U.S. in Bloomberg Businessweek.
Additional highlights of recent rankings include:
- 1 — Best Education Experience for eight consecutive years (The Economist, 2011–18)
- 1 — MBA program for General Management (Financial Times, 2013–17, 2019)
- 1 — MBA program for Corporate Social Responsibility (Financial Times, 2019)
- 1 — Student Rating of Faculty (The Economist, 2018)
- 1 — Overseas Study Trips Score (The Economist, 2017–18)
- 1 — Best Professors (The Princeton Review, 2017–18)
- 1 — Best MBA for Consulting (The Princeton Review, 2018)
The U.S. News ranking assesses schools on admissions selectivity factors for incoming students and on career outcomes of the most recently graduated class. The ranking also takes into consideration the opinions of deans of other business schools and recruiters’ evaluations of the School’s program and graduates.
Darden’s most recent incoming class set new records in a variety of fields, including a record high GMAT score.
The University of Virginia Darden School of Business prepares responsible global leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences. Darden’s graduate degree programs (MBA, MSBA and Ph.D.) and Executive Education & Lifelong Learning programs offered by the Darden School Foundation set the stage for a lifetime of career advancement and impact. Darden’s top-ranked faculty, renowned for teaching excellence, inspires and shapes modern business leadership worldwide through research, thought leadership and business publishing. Darden has Grounds in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C., area and a global community that includes 18,000 alumni in 90 countries. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Darden School of Business
University of Virginia
MitchellM@darden.virginia.edu
