Georgetown McDonough School of Business

McDonough’s real major is Washington. Students take meetings at the IMF and World Bank between classes, the Business of Global Politics curriculum is a genuine specialty rather than a brochure line, and consulting firms staffing regulatory and public-sector work hire here on purpose. Median base pay near $145,000 puts it within reach of schools ranked well above.

The 2026 U.S. News table knocked the school down seven places to No. 31, its first finish outside the top 25 — a swing Poets&Quants attributed more to methodology noise than to any change on the ground. The honest weakness is identity beyond the Beltway: pure finance and tech candidates have straighter roads elsewhere.