Rutgers Executive MBA ranked among top 20 U.S. programs by Financial Times

The 2025 Global Executive MBA Rankings were recently published by the Financial Times, placing the Rutgers EMBA program No. 19 among U.S. schools, No. 5 in the Big Ten, and overall No. 93 worldwide [see report]. 

With 21 ranking criteria, the Financial Times publishes one of the most comprehensive reports on business schools, measuring everything from employment outcomes to alumni satisfaction [see methodology].

In terms of return on investment, the Rutgers EMBA program is ranked No. 4 in the U.S. for salary percent increase. This ranking measures the average difference in alumni salaries before they started their EMBA and their current salaries. This achievement highlights one of the defining strengths of the Rutgers EMBA Powerhouse: Providing an exceptional educational experience while delivering a strong return on investment for our students.

Professor Farrokh Langdana, who is director of the Rutgers Executive MBA Program, said that while the traditional ROI measures salary relative to the cost of the program, those metrics ignore the more important components of ROI. "In my opinion,"  he said, "these (components) are the lifelong connections that the Rutgers EMBAs make within their classes, especially their learning teams, which are second families to them.  In addition, the alumni always have us, the Rutgers EMBA Powerhouse Faculty, to count on, at any time."

"A more complete ROI really should also incorporate these intangibles,” Langdana said.

To be eligible for ranking, schools must be accredited by either the US Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or Europe’s Equis. The EMBA also must be cohort-based, with students starting and completing the program together. A total of 129 programs took part in the ranking process, including 11 joint courses run by more than one school.

Fifty-two percent of the ranking data comes from a survey of alumni who completed EMBAS in 2022. Their responses covered current salary, salary increase, career progress, work experience, aims achieved, and quality of the alumni network. Thirty-eight percent of the ranking data comes from the schools, encompassing environmental, social, and governance factors; faculty and student gender diversity; international diversity; and the Financial Times research rank. 

The FT research rank is calculated using the number of articles published between January 2023 and May 2025 by full-time faculty in the FT50 internationally recognized academic and practitioner journals. The remaining 10% of the ranking data comes from weighting for faculty and student gender diversity, which is 5% each. For these gender diversity criteria, schools with a 50:50 (male: female) composition receive the highest score.

-Sean Ireland