Fortune Best Online MBA Programs Includes Scranton

Fortune’s inaugural ranking of the “Best Online MBAs” placed The University of Scranton at No. 72 in the nation. Fortune initiated the new ranking in response to the transition of many schools to virtual formats for learning caused by the pandemic. Fortune expects the popularity of the online format for MBA programs will increase in the coming years.

The “Best Online MBAs” ranking was published online on April 26.

For the ranking, Fortune looked at the quality of the online MBA program at the colleges as measured by their students’ average undergraduate GPA and GMAT score, the number of students enrolled, the colleges’ first-year retention rate and its graduation rate, which accounted for 55 percent of the overall ranking score. Fortune partnered with Ipsos to survey thousands of business professionals and hiring managers to produce a measurement of the “brand appeal” of the college, or “how much a group of people want to recruit from the university” (20 percent). Fortune also counted the number of Fortune 1000 executives who earned an MBA from the college (17.5 percent) and calculated the “prestige score” of a college based its online MBA program rankings by other national sources such as U.S. News, The Princeton Review and others (7.5 percent).

Earlier this year, U.S. News & World Report ranked Scranton’s online master’s degree programs in business (excluding MBA) at No. 48; and its online MBA program at No. 111 in the nation in its “Best Online Programs” guide. U.S. News also ranked Scranton at No. 67 in the country for “Best Online MBA Programs for Veterans.” The University’s online and on-campus programs have been ranked by numerous sources, including The Princeton Review and The Wall Street Journal.