The Graduate School of Business at Stanford University has come out on top over rival Harvard in the battle to be named top business school in the U.S. for graduates . The two heavyweight institutions together with Wharton School ​at the University of Pennsylvania had tied for first place in last year 's list compiled by U.S. News & World Report . This time around the 2016 Best Graduate Schools rankings released on Tuesday have placed Stanford out top on its own , followed by Harvard and then Wharton . Graduating Stanford University students participate in the 'Wacky Walk ' before the start of the commencement ceremony : The Graduate School of Business at Stanford has beaten rival Harvard and been named top business school in the U.S. for graduates . Chief Data Strategist Robert Morse told DailyMail that the scores for the top three schools remained extremely close but Stamford scored slightly better in several categories including undergraduate GPAs , admission scores and number of 2014 graduates employed within three months . Lower down the league table of institutions offering MBA programs there was significant movement . Mays Business School at Texas A & M University rose 10 spots to No . 27 , where it 's tied with two other schools . Wake Forest University 's business school , which tied for No . 58 in last year 's rankings , leaped to a tie for No . 45 . Among part-time MBA programs , the University of California-Berkeley 's Haas School of Business again took the No . 1 spot , followed by the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago in second place and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in third . For the U.S. News Best Business Schools rankings , all 464 master 's programs in business accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International were surveyed in the fall of 2014 and early 2015 . A total of 385 responded . Harvard Business School students cheer during their graduation ceremonies in Boston , Massachusetts : The school MBA program has been beaten into second place in the latest rankings . Of those , 126 provided enough of the data needed to calculate the full-time MBA rankings , based on a weighted average of the indicators described below . All 464 schools appear in the online directory . The business programs were assessed according to factors including peer assessment , recruiter assessment , placement success and mean starting salary and bonus . 'Nearly half of college students see value in pursuing graduate degrees , ' said Brian Kelly , editor and chief content officer of U.S. News . 'Our Best Graduate Schools rankings are designed to help prospective students research programs in their field of interest and evaluate the potential return on their investment . ' The 2016 edition also features information and rankings for law , education , engineering and medicine . Stanford University 's campus in California : The median monthly earnings for young adults with master 's degrees were 24 percent higher than for those with bachelor 's degrees . In the law school rankings , Yale University held onto its No . 1 spot , while Harvard University and Stanford University tied for second . Harvard is again the No . 1 medical school for research , with Stanford holding onto the second spot . In evaluating graduate school data , U.S. News found that fewer Americans are heading to graduate school overall , with first-time enrollment shrinking by about 1 percent between fall 2012 and 2013 . Skipping grad school could have a detrimental effect on an individual 's earnings , the magazine noted , citing a Pew Research Center analysis of salary data . The research firm found that median monthly earnings for young adults with master 's degrees were 24 percent higher than for those with bachelor 's degrees .
The Graduate School of Business at Stanford University has beaten rival Harvard in the battle to be named top business school in the U.S. In a ranking released Wednesday, the university was ranked No. 1 for undergraduate programs and No. 2 overall by "U.S. News & World Report. MBA programs were assessed according to factors including recruiter assessment , placement success and mean starting salary and bonus . Fewer Americans are heading to graduate school overall , with first-time enrollment shrinking by about one percent between fall 2012 and 2013 .