Darden Cements Best Rankings Year Ever, Climbing to Top 10 in U.S. News & World Report

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business reached a new milestone, climbing to No. 10 overall and No. 2 among public schools in this year’s U.S. News & World Report ranking of the best graduate business programs in the United States. Combined with other rankings this academic year, 2024 has emerged as Darden’s best ranking year ever.

Darden moved up four spots from No. 14 overall last year and No. 3 among publics. The Top 10 ranking for Darden’s Full Time MBA program matches the School’s highest ever, previously achieved in 2016.

“We are pleased to see rankings from U.S. News and other services recognize the Darden School for the exceptional education experience our faculty and staff provide and career outcomes our graduates are able to realize,” Dean Scott Beardsley said. “Our students, faculty, staff and alumni deserve all the credit for continuing to grow a learning community that is unlike any other.”

Among the Top 10 schools, Darden ranked the highest for both “Employed by Graduation” (up 5 places to No. 4 overall) and in “Employed 3 Months After Graduation.” The School continues to excel in salary outcomes as well, both for the “Average Starting Salary and Bonus” (jumping from No. 10 to No. 5 in the U.S., thanks to a gain of $13,426, and retaining its position as No. 1 public school in this category for 6^th year in the row), and a new category “Salary by Profession” (No. 10, and No. 2 public school), which assesses how a school’s average salary compared to average salaries among all ranked schools in specific industries.

U.S. News also creates specialty rankings from the survey of business school deans. For these, deans are asked to name up to 15 top schools in each category. This year, Darden was recognized as the No. 4 MBA for Management (up from No. 6 last year).

The U.S. News & World Report rankings follow a series of stellar rankings for Darden this academic year, including a No. 1 public business school in the world ranking from The Financial Times, No. 3 business school overall in the US from Bloomberg Businessweek, No. 1 in a composite of the Princeton Review and No. 1 public business school from Poets & Quants.

“Rankings are important to many prospective students and often play a key role in their enrollment decisions, and they reflect Darden’s tremendous current momentum from executing against the mission of the school,” Beardsley said. “Darden is mission-driven and does not make decisions based on how they might affect our rank. We are executing on our strategy to continue improving the quality of our educational experience, our world-class faculty, our staff and our physical Grounds. If we continue doing this successfully, positive rankings usually follow.”