One year after the University of Indiana Kelley School of Business and University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School grabbed the top mantle in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Online MBA Programs” list, the two schools managed to hold the first spot yet again in the publication’s updated 2020 Online MBA ranking.
The top five schools in the 2020 Online MBA ranking are, in fact, exactly the same as the previous year. Indiana Kelley and UNC Kenan-Flagler lead the way, with Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business in third, followed by the University of Florida’s Hough Graduate School of Business in fourth, and the USC Marshall School of Business in fifth.
2020 Online MBA Ranking Changes
After the top five, however, things begin to look different from last year. Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business Online MBA moves up three spots from its 2019 placement, alongside the University of Mississippi Business School. Both programs tied with the University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management, which maintains its sixth spot from last year.
The Arizona State University W.P. Carey Business School and University of Arizona Eller College of Management rankings, in contrast, nearly reversed. ASU Carey dropped from its sixth overall spot in 2019 to 10th, now tied with its Arizona Eller. The University of Maryland College Park Smith School of Business also tied at 10th overall, falling from eighth the previous year.
In all, three schools managed to climb into the top 10 in 2020 after not appearing last year; the Villanova School of Business (ninth); the University of Washing Foster School of Business (tied at 10th); and the University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium (also tied at 10th). The Auburn University Harbert College of Business was the lone school to appear in the top 10 last year to fall out in the 2020 Online MBA ranking, slipping to 18th.
In all, the top 10 is as follows:
| Ranking | School |
|---|---|
| 1 (tied) | Indiana Kelley |
| 1 (tied) | UNC Kenan-Flagler |
| 3 | Carnegie Mellon Tepper |
| 4 | Florida Hough |
| 5 | USC Marshall |
| 6 (tied) | Penn State Smeal |
| 6 (tied) | Mississippi |
| 6 (tied) | UT Dallas |
| 9 | Villanova |
| 10 (tied) | ASU Carey |
| 10 (tied) | Arizona Eller |
| 10 (tied) | UMD Smith |
| 10 (tied) | UW Foster |
| 10 (tied) | Wisconsin |
Temple’s Ranking Return
After the long (long!) fallout of the Temple University’s Fox School of Business debacle, in which the Philadelphia-based business school sent U.S. News & World Report falsified data to bolster its rankings, the school’s Online MBA has officially returned to the publication’s annual list. However, after several years of first place finishes, Temple Fox is much further down the list for 2020, tied for 88th overall.
Shortly after the recent news broke, the school released an official statement, which reads: “When Temple first reported issues with submitted data to the publication in January 2018, we understood that it would take time to restore the inevitable damage to the ranking and reputation of the Fox School. But it was the right thing to do to restore public trust in the integrity of our data.”
For a breakdown of the entire ranking, head over to the official U.S. News website.