5.Columbia
Index: 95.0
2010 Rank: 5
Average GMAT: 716
Acceptance rate: 16%
Median base salary: $110,000
Suggested two-year budget: $165,740
In the provocative documentary Inside Job, which chronicles the origins of the global financial crisis of 2008, Columbia Business School endures a nasty beating due to its close and cozy alignment with Wall Street.
Dean Glenn Hubbard, who had been chief economic adviser during the Bush administration, and finance professor Frederic Mishkin, a member of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2008, both nearly make fools of themselves.
No matter. If you're headed into financial services, you'll be hard pressed to find a more direct route than Columbia, which probably has more alumni on Wall Street than any other business school in the world (Wharton and NYU also are good bets but even they don't exactly rival Columbia).
Percentage of MBAs with job offers at graduation: 86%