Losing ground: Olin - Washington Univ.
Index: 56.1
2010 Rank: 26
Average GMAT: 696
Acceptance rate: 28%
Median base salary: $90,000
Suggested two-year budget: $127,856
The Olin School's MBA program in St. Louis is known for its highly collaborative culture of caring teachers and small class sizes. But it plunged in this year's ranking, taking one of the largest dives of all 100 schools ranked by Poets&Quants. Olin dropped 15 places to a rank of 41st from 26th a year ago.
The fall was largely due to weak showings in three separate rankings this year: Olin, ranked 49th globally by The Financial Times, fell entirely off the newspaper's 2011 list. The school also dropped six places to No. 47 in Forbes' ranking, which measures return-on-investment. And it slipped one place in U.S. News' ranking to 20th from 19th in 2010.
All of this follows Olin's precipitous drop in last year's BusinessWeek ranking to No. 40 from 28. MBA grads were particularly unhappy with the quality of career services back then -- a much tougher year in the job market.
Percentage of MBAs with job offers at graduation: 74%