QS is a mid-size company with 250 multi-cultural employees. With offices in London, Paris, Bucharest, Stuttgart, Mumbai and Singapore, QS boasts of a staff that speaks 26 different languages—and that’s just in the marketing department.

Such diversity is required when your company’s mission is to link high achievers from the graduate, MBA and executive communities around the world with employers, leading business schools and postgraduate departments at universities.

QS organizes the largest business education events in the world (the QS World MBA Tour, the QS World Executive MBA Tour and the leading postgraduate studies information event, the QS World Grad School Tour) and produces an extensive product range that includes print and online publications and software solutions.

Another thing the company produces are surveys, including its QS Global MBA Rankings 2019 that can be accessed via TopUniversities.com. Included are the top 250 programs around the planet. What follows are the top 10 with their ranks, program durations, average Graduate Management Admissions Test scores, fees in U.S. dollars and brief overviews.

1. STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Palo Alto, California.

Duration: 24 months

GMAT: 732

Fee: $110,000-$120,000

The prestigious private research university is currently overtaking its Ivy League rivals in the selectivity stakes. Its Graduate School of Business (GSB), founded in 1925, is the toughest to get into in the nation, with only a 7.1 percent acceptance rate. The GSB’s distinguished faculty includes three Nobel Prize winners, two John Bates Clark Award winners and 15 members of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences.

2. HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Boston, Massachusetts

Duration: 24 months

GMAT: 730

Fee: $120,000

Harvard Business School (HBS), the Ivy League stalwart’s graduate business school, occupies four buildings directly opposite Harvard Stadium and across the Charles River from Harvard University. The HBS offers a full-time, two-year, residential MBA program designed to prepare students for global leadership roles. But is it worth $120k? Well, a graduate’s average salary three months after leaving the program is $137,293. 

3. PENN (WHARTON)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Duration: 21 months

GMAT: 732

Fee: $120,000

The full-time, 20-month MBA at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania includes a recommended 3.5-month summer internship. Such a commitment is necessary given the requirement for a major concentration of 4.0 credits, with a choice from 19 majors, plus 5.5 electives in addition to the core curriculum. A semester of study at the San Francisco campus is available by application.

4. LONDON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

London, England

Duration: 21 months

GMAT: 707

Fee: $100,000-$110,000

“To have a profound impact on the way the world does business” is the LBS motto, which is drilled into students by a faculty composed of 130 world-leading, internationally diverse (30 nationalities) experts. With 75 percent of the world’s top 500 companies based in London and 1,000 start-ups launched per month in the city, students have access to excellent networking and employment opportunities.

5. MIT (SLOAN)

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Duration: 24 months

GMAT: 728

Fee: $120,000

The flagship MIT Sloan School of Management full-time MBA program is to be completed over two years, while an immersive, one-year, full-time Sloan Fellows MBA program is also available. The latter is a transformational course for mid-career executives from more than 20 nationalities, designed to help students build a global network of colleagues from for-profit and non-profit multinational organizations, entrepreneurial endeavors and governing bodies.

6. INSEAD

Fontainebleau, Singapore

Duration: 10 months

GMAT: 710

Fee: $90,000-$100,000

INSEAD’s accelerated, 10-month MBA program aims to develop successful, thoughtful leaders and entrepreneurs who create value for their organizations and their communities. Conducted on two campuses (one in Europe, the other in Asia), the program draws more than 90 different nationalities to classrooms, an unprecedented multicultural experience among business schools.

7. HEC PARIS

Jouy-en-Josas, France

Duration: 16 months

GMAT: 691

Fee: $60,000-$70,000

HEC Paris MBA is conducted on a 340-acre, wooded campus with its own chateau, just 17 kilometers from the center of Paris. If that’s not enough to have a potential student say “oui-oui,” there’s the fact that HEC Paris is situated in the Paris-Saclay Innovation Cluster, which is designed to unite France’s best research institutions, hi-tech businesses, startups and universities.

8. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (BOOTH)

Chicago, Illinois

Duration: 21 months

GMAT: 731

Fee: $120,000

The “Chicago Booth Culture” promises to take students deeper into issues, broaden their perspectives and force them to question assumptions—including their own. “Instead of accepting the status quo, you’ll pursue the best thinking,” boast Booth School of Business recruiters. “You’ll develop the necessary skills to successfully take on any business challenge and the opportunities they generate.”

9. IE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Madrid, Spain

Duration: 12 months

GMAT: 685

Fee: $80,000-$90,000

The institution’s full-time, flagship International MBA program is described as a “transformational journey” that “shapes professionals and entrepreneurs, turning them into leaders that generate impact and drive change around the world.” An integrative and innovative approach to business education combines core business knowledge with customizable labs plus an elective period with 10 concentration areas in a full-time, one-year format.

10. COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL

New York, New York

Duration: 24 months

GMAT: 732

Fee: $120,000

The CBS MBA program’s curriculum prepares students to lead, build and manage companies while instilling an awareness of the societal effects of business decisions. “Students benefit from the transformative research and extensive, behind-the-scenes industry knowledge from the faculty leading the course,” according to CBS. “They also benefit from the cultural, ethnic, and sector diversity of fellow students in their learning team, or cluster group, which they join and learn with throughout the program.”

For rankings of the 240 schools and their respective program details, visit www.topmba.com/college/columbia-business-school/full-time-mba.