Grades don’t matter in business school, you’ll hear. That may be true, but that’s because the experience is designed for students to step out of their comfort zones and experiment. While networking, travel, and clubs grab the headlines, academia is still the foundation. Here, the University of Chicago delivers the goods. Known for its data-driven curriculum and faculty excellence, Booth bested IESE, a case-driven program that’s tailored after the Harvard Business School model. That model is also applied at Virginia Darden, which ranked 4th, just a point behind #3 Northwestern Kellogg. The alumni academic survey, however, raises several questions. Notably, how did the Wharton School, the world’s best business research school, finish just 10th? Stranger still, what made alumni respondents rank Harvard Business School as low as 18th? Overall, alumni followed conventional wisdom as academically-inclined programs like Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, and IMD all ranked among the Top 15.