Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management was ranked No. 9 among U.S. business schools in Bloomberg Businessweek’s latest Best Business Schools rankings, falling one spot from its No. 8 ranking last year.
Johnson tied with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management for ninth place. MIT returned to Bloomberg’s top ten after ranking No. 11 in the 2025-2026 ranking.
The annual Bloomberg ranking evaluates full-time MBA programs using data from students, alumni, and employers, alongside school-reported information. Bloomberg’s methodology considers five areas: compensation, learning, networking, entrepreneurship and inclusion.
Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business retained its No. 1 position for the eighth consecutive year. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School ranked second, followed by Harvard Business School at No. 3 and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management at No. 4.
Johnson’s No. 9 placement keeps the school within Bloomberg’s top ten U.S. business schools for the second consecutive year. Johnson broke into the top ten last year after ranking No. 11 in Bloomberg’s 2024-2025 ranking.
In the 2025-2026 rankings, Johnson saw gains across several of Bloomberg’s five indexes, including learning, networking and entrepreneurship. The school’s Entrepreneurship Index — which measures how well a business school can support and prepare students for starting and growing businesses — rose 17 places from the previous year to the No. 12 spot, according to a report from S.C. Johnson.
In this year’s rankings, Cornell’s scores shifted across Bloomberg’s categories: compensation and learning rankings fell while networking and entrepreneurship rankings rose.
Bloomberg removed “inclusion” as a component of its overall ranking this year, leaving no directly comparable ranking for Cornell. The change comes amid broader shifts in universities’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs following increased federal scrutiny of diversity initiatives.
Bloomberg’s ranking incorporates compensation and employment-related data alongside survey responses from students and alumni in addition to considering learning, networking and entrepreneurship.
This approach differs from rankings such as U.S. News & World Report, which combine employment outcomes with academic indicators and assessments of program quality.
This year’s ranking comes amid changes in the MBA landscape, including shifting career prospects and growing uncertainty around the industries and roles hiring business school graduates. Bloomberg reported that consulting, finance and technology remained the largest employers of recent MBA graduates, while artificial intelligence was beginning to reshape roles traditionally filled by business school graduates.
Kristie To is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Kristie is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at kto@cornellsun.com.
