Our ranking of M.B.A. programs is based on the return on investment achieved by the graduates from the class of 2004. We surveyed 17,000 alumni at 103 schools and heard back from 24% of those grads. We compared their earnings in their first five years out of business school to their opportunity cost (two years of forgone compensation, tuition and required fees). We adjusted for cost of living expenses and discounted their earnings gains using a rate tied to money market yields.

We also discounted tuition to account for students who pay in-state rates and for the non-repayable financial aid that schools dole out. This year for the first time we also accounted for required fees that students must pay on top of tuition. Only two-year full-time M.B.A. programs were included in the U.S. ranking.

Holders of master of business administration degrees have taken it on the chin in the last two years. B-school alums like Richard Fuld, Vikram Pandit and Richard Wagoner have been dragged in front of Congress for public floggings. The job picture for new M.B.A.s is bleak right now, with only 50% of them having a job offer three months before graduation, down from 62% last year, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council. Bank of America ( BAC – news – people ) was reportedly forced to pull job offers from 50 2009 M.B.A. graduates after it accepted Troubled Asset Relief Program funds.