Three Virginia business schools make top 20 Poets&Quants rankings

Four Virginia business schools placed among the top 104 business schools in Poets&Quants’ 2025 rankings of undergraduate business schools, released Monday. Of these Virginia schools, three were in the top 20.

Poets&Quants for Undergrads, an online publication and forum dedicated to business schools, ranks schools by three categories: admissions standards, academic experience, and career outcomes. The final ranking involves the publication taking the index scores in each of the three categories and adding them for the final raw score.

The No. 1 school nationally remained the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

The University of Virginia‘s McIntire School of Commerce came in 14th place. While this was a dip from last year, when the school ranked in fourth place, McIntire remained the top-ranking Virginia business school included in the rankings. The school took third place in the academic experience category.

Virginia’s second highest ranking business school was the University of Richmond‘s Robins School of Business, which ranked 17th overall, up from 18th last year. In the 2025 ranking, Robins had one of the highest 2-year employment rates at 99.8%, an average of the rates for the classes of 2024 and 2023. Robins has been among the top 20 schools for four consecutive years.

“We are proud that this year’s rankings recognize our unwavering commitment to providing a dynamic undergraduate experience — one that is both academically rigorous and prepares our students for meaningful careers that make a positive impact,” said Mickey Quiñones, dean of the business school, in a statement.

The third highest ranking business school in Virginia by Poets&Quants this year was William & Mary‘s Raymond A. Mason School of Business, ranked No. 20 overall. The school says this was a “significant leap” from last year, when the school ranked 48th overall and from 2023 when the school ranked 68th.

In a news release, the Mason School acknowledged it previously faced challenges in meeting the crucial alumni response threshold for Poets&Quants’ 2022 rankings. It says that successfully meeting this benchmark for three consecutive years was a critical factor in its ascent in the rankings.

“We are incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made, and this ranking is a testament to the hard work of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni,” Terry Hinders, associate dean of the undergraduate business programs at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, said in a statement. “This ranking is not just a number — it represents our community’s dedication in providing a world-class education and experience that empowers our students to succeed in an ever-changing global economy.”

The remaining Virginia school was The University of Mary Washington, which came in at 84th overall. The school came in at 34th in the “academic experience” category.

“This recognition highlights our faculty’s expertise, our focus on innovation and the success of our graduates,” UMW College of Business Dean Filiz Tabak said in a statement. “It showcases UMW as a top destination for students seeking a rigorous, hands-on business education with small class sizes, personalized attention and strong career outcomes.”

Poets&Quants collected admissions data through an institutional survey that each school completed between July 2024 and January 2025. New metrics added this year include 6-year graduation rate (weighted 20% of the category) and average high school GPA of the incoming class (weighted 15%).

The publication eliminated a metric used last year: The percent of incoming freshmen who were National Merit Scholars. According to Poets&Quants’ website, other admissions metrics include acceptance rate of the incoming class, average SAT/ACT scores, percent of incoming class that were in the top 10% of their high school class and the percent of the incoming class that are female, international, underrepresented minorities and first-generation college students.

The academic experience data comes from an alumni survey, also administered between July 2024 and January 2025. This year the publication surveyed students from the class of 2022, or those graduating between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022. The publication averaged the results of this year’s survey with the average from the two previous classes – giving 50% weight to the class of 2022 and 25% each to the other classes.