The BP Score
Every program we cover gets a BP Score, a 0–100 composite built from four weighted parts. Career outcomes count for 40 percent: placement rate three months after graduation, median salary and signing bonus, and the quality and breadth of the employers doing the hiring. Return on investment counts for 25 percent: total cost of attendance against post-degree earnings, payback period, and the effect of in-state pricing where it exists. Academic rigor counts for 20 percent: selectivity, entering-class GMAT and GPA, and faculty strength. Student experience counts for 15 percent: class size, satisfaction, and the reach of the alumni network.
Outcomes carry the most weight on purpose. An MBA is a purchase, and the fairest way to judge a purchase is by what it returns. Reputation surveys, the backbone of most rankings, measure what deans think of each other. We think applicants deserve a measure of what employers actually pay.
Where the data comes from
The numbers come from the schools themselves: published class profiles and employment reports, most of them prepared under the MBA Career Services & Employer Alliance reporting standards that make figures comparable across programs. We then cross-check against the current U.S. News table, Poets&Quants reporting, and the QS global rankings. Where the three disagree with each other, and in the middle of the market they disagree often, we go with the audited employment data and note the dispute. Where a school publishes no usable figure, the field stays empty. We do not estimate, and we do not fill gaps with numbers a ranking needs but a school never reported.
Coverage tiers
Coverage runs in tiers, and we say so rather than pretending every profile is equal. Programs in our top tier get full reviews: a scored data card, a written assessment, a verdict, and the case for and against. The next tier gets the same structure in a more compact form. Beyond that, programs get a verified data card and a short review. The depth of coverage reflects the depth of reliable data, not the importance of the school to its own students.
Specialty and regional rankings
Specialty and regional tables are curated, not re-sorted. The consulting ranking is ordered by consulting placement, the international-students ranking by STEM designation, sponsorship rates, and visa infrastructure, the regional tables by outcomes among the programs that actually serve those markets. A school’s overall score gets it considered; its performance in the lane gets it ranked.
Updates, corrections, and what we won’t do
Scores are rebuilt once a year, when the new class profiles and employment reports land. Corrections happen whenever the evidence does. What we will not do, at any price: sell a position, trade coverage for access, or let a school edit its own review. The score is the score.