The 2026 US News Part-Time MBA Rankings Explained

The US News part-time MBA ranking includes no employment data and no salary data. There's no placement rate in it, no starting compensation figure, no figure for what graduates earn once they finish. Half the score comes from a reputation survey filled out by business school deans and MBA program directors. The remaining half comes from enrollment size, the share of a school's MBA students who attend part time, standardized test scores, undergraduate GPA and years of work experience.

The full-time ranking runs on a different engine. Placement and pay drive close to half of that result, which is why it reacts when hiring markets shift. The part-time table can hold steady through a difficult recruiting year because it never looks at hiring at all. Anyone reading the two lists side by side on the same website is comparing a reputation-and-inputs measure against an outcomes measure.

Below is where the part-time list stands now, what moved since the 2023-24 edition, and how we'd use it if we were choosing a program.

What the US News part-time MBA ranking measures

Six factors, weighted as follows.

• Peer assessment, 50 percent. Deans and MBA program directors rate other schools' part-time offerings on a five-point scale.
• Part-time student ratio, 12.5 percent. Part-time students as a share of total MBA enrollment.
• Total part-time enrollment, 12.5 percent. Raw headcount in the program.
• Median GMAT or GRE, 10 percent. Entering class scores.
• Undergraduate GPA, 10 percent. Entering class averages.
• Work experience, 5 percent. Average years of professional experience at matriculation.

Five of the six describe students on the day they enrolll. The sixth is a matter of opinion. Two of them, together worth a quarter of the score, reward scale, so a large program with a heavy part-time share picks up points that a small selective one can't. Peer assessment moves slowly by design, since reputation among deans is built over decades and rarely swings in a single survey cycle.

What the ranking leaves out matters as much as what it counts. There's no read on teaching quality, nothing on curriculum design, no data on how many students finish, no employer sponsorship rate, and no evidence about whether graduates get promoted or change careers. If those are the reasons you're considering a part-time MBA, the ranking won't answer the question you're asking.

The weightings themselves are unchanged from the prior edition, so movement in the table this year comes from the underlying numbers and the pool of eligible programs rather than from a rewritten formula.

The 2026 US News part-time MBA top 10

US News published the 2026 edition on April 6, 2026, and the next release is expected around April 2027. Here's the top 10, with ties as US News reports them.

• 1 (tie). UC Berkeley Haas
• 1 (tie). Northwestern Kellogg
• 3 (tie). Chicago Booth
• 3 (tie). NYU Stern
• 5. UCLA Anderson
• 6 (tie). Michigan Ross
• 6 (tie). UT Austin McCombs
• 8. Ohio State Fisher
• 9. Georgia Tech Scheller
• 10. USC Marshall

Four ties inside ten slots tells you something about how compressed the scoring is at the top. When half the score is a survey and most of the rest is enrollment and entering-class data, schools of similar size and selectivity land on nearly identical totals. The gap between first and fifth is thinner than the ordinal positions suggest.

Two of these programs sit inside M7 schools that run large evening and weekend cohorts, and the part-time route is the only way many local applicants access them. Our profiles of Kellogg and Chicago Booth cover what those programs look for, and the standards translate closely to their part-time formats.

What changed since the 2023-24 part-time rankings

Four things moved, and one eligibility rule changed the pool the list is drawn from.

• Carnegie Mellon Tepper left the top 15. Tepper appeared in the 2023-24 top 10 and no longer places in the top 15 at all.
• Georgetown McDonough slipped from 10th to a three-way tie at 11th. That's one position on paper, and it moved the school off the front-page list.
• Ohio State Fisher and Georgia Tech Scheller took those places at 8th and 9th.
• Berkeley Haas gave up sole possession of first, sharing it with Kellogg.

The eligibility change is the one worth understanding. US News removed predominantly online programs from the part-time category for this edition, which trimmed the field to 245 programs surveyed and 233 ranked, eight fewer than the year before. Removing programs from a list reshuffles everything below the cut line, so some of the movement here reflects a smaller pool rather than a school performing differently.

We've seen no reports of a boycott on the part-time side, unlike the full-time ranking's participation fights in recent years. That said, the absence of reported boycotts isn't confirmation that every eligible school submitted data, and we'd treat any claim of full participation as unverified.

How to use the part-time ranking when you're picking a program

Treat it as a reputation index with a geography constraint attached. Part-time MBA students almost always study near where they live and work, so the practical choice set is usually the two or three programs within commuting distance. A program ranked 20th in a city you're staying in will serve you better than a program ranked 3rd across the country.

From there, ask the questions the ranking doesn't cover. Find out what share of the class receives employer tuition support and what the clawback terms look like. Ask how many part-time students complete the degree, and over what average timeline. Ask whether part-time students get the same access to career services, employer events and club leadership as the full-time cohort, since that varies more than most applicants expect. Ask which courses are actually offered in the evening slots, because a catalog is not a schedule.

Then run the underlying decision separately. The part-time route protects your income and keeps your career moving, and it costs you the hiring reset that a full-time program is built to deliver. If you're aiming to switch industry and function at the same time, that trade-off deserves a hard look before the rankings enter the conversation at all. We wrote about that decision in should you go to business school, and it applies with more force to part-time applicants.

On the application itself, part-time programs read the same materials the full-time admissions committee does. That means essays, recommendations, a resume, a test score and an interview. The adcom at most part-time programs weights work experience and employer support more heavily, and it still wants a clear reason why this degree, this school, and this year.

Most of our work sits with full-time M7 and top-10 applicants, so a part-time-only candidate isn't always the right fit for us. If you're weighing both routes at the same school, or targeting a full-time program alongside a part-time backup, that's a conversation we can help with. Take a look at our consulting packages and let's figure out whether it makes sense to work together.

Frequently asked questions

Does a part-time MBA diploma say part-time on it?

At most schools the degree conferred is the same MBA, and the diploma doesn't note the format. Transcript conventions vary more than diplomas do, so confirm with the specific program if it matters to you. Employers who care about format usually learn it from your dates of employment rather than from the credential.

How do part-time admissions standards compare with full-time at the same school?

Median test scores at part-time programs typically run below the full-time medians at the same institution, and average work experience runs higher. That doesn't make the process easy. Part-time cohorts at the top programs still turn down a large share of applicants, and a weak reason for pursuing the degree is a common cause of rejection.

Can you transfer from a part-time program into the full-time MBA?

Some schools allow an internal move, usually within the first year and subject to seat availability and a fresh review. Others don't permit it at all. Ask the admissions office directly before you enroll, and get the answer in writing, since informal reassurance during an admissions conversation doesn't bind anyone.

Do employers still pay for part-time MBA tuition?

Sponsorship is common in consulting, banking, tech and large industrials, and the terms have tightened. Annual caps, partial coverage and multi-year clawbacks are typical, and many policies require you to stay two or three years after graduation. Read the clawback language before you accept an offer of support, since it shapes your options for a long stretch after you finish.

Does US News rank executive MBA programs on this list?

No. Executive MBA programs are ranked separately, with their own methodology and their own submission cycle. A school's part-time position tells you nothing about where its EMBA lands, and the two programs often serve different applicant populations with different tuition, scheduling and cohort profiles.