The top 10 business schools with the highest GMAT scores

Location: New York, New York

Average GMAT score: 715

Students begin crafting their network and community within the business world the minute they arrive at Columbia, thanks in part to the school's cluster system, which places first-year students in "clusters" of 65 to 70 people who take all their core classes together. Columbia also counts some of the greatest minds in finance among its alumni, including Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and former Bank of America executive Sallie Krawcheck.

Location: Hanover, New Hampshire

Average GMAT score: 716

After their first year in the program, a full 100% of Tuck's class of 2016 gained hands-on experience through summer internships.

Within three months of graduation, 95% of the class of 2015 had accepted job offers, many of them at big-name companies, including Bain & Co., Goldman Sachs, Samsung, Deloitte, and Barclays Capital.

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Average GMAT score: 716

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is not only the best college in America, but it's also home to one of the best business schools. The Sloan School of Management, which celebrated its 100-year anniversary last year, offers three MBA tracks: enterprise management, entrepreneurship and innovation, and finance. Sloan reported that 93% of 2014 graduates accepted job offers within 90 days of graduation at companies like Adobe, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, and 7.4% of grads went on to start their own businesses.

Location: New York, New York

Average GMAT score: 720

Stern's MBA program heavily focuses on individuality, and students can choose up to three specializations, with options including everything from banking to real estate to luxury marketing. Post-graduation, students end up at a range of companies, including Boston Consulting Group, NBCUniversal, Morgan Stanley, and Burberry.

The school takes its name from billionaire property mogul Leonard Stern, who earned his MBA from NYU in 1959 and donated $30 million to construct a new building for the business school in 1988.

Location: Evanston, Illinois

Average GMAT score: 724

Northwestern's business school was established in the early 19 00s, but it wasn't until 1979 that the school took the Kellogg name following a $10 million donation from the John L. and Helen Kellogg Foundation — heirs of the family that started the famed cereal company.

The school emphasizes international experience. Its International Growth Lab pairs its students with those at ESADE in Barcelona and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to develop strategies for solving an international business' real-world problems. Kellogg also offers an accelerated, one-year MBA degree for top students who already have a business background.

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Average GMAT score: 725

The world's oldest MBA program, Harvard Business School is also often considered the best. Graduates command average starting salaries of $131,600, the school boasts a name-brand reputation with employers, and the HBS network of living alumni is more more than 44,000 strong, making it one of the most coveted business degrees out there.

HBS's cadre of successful alumni — littered with politicians, CEOs, and billionaires — is unrivaled as well: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former President George W. Bush, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, and HP Chairman Meg Whitman all graduated from the institution.

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Average GMAT score: 726

Though among the most expensive MBA degrees in the world, the Booth School of Business all but guarantees a coveted job: 98% of students from the 2015 class had secured employment within three months of graduation — the highest percentage of any school — and the top-five employers were McKinsey & Co., Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Co., Amazon, and Bank of America.

Booth's full-time MBA program focuses on training students for real-world business scenarios through experiential learning and lab courses where students work with actual early-stage startups. The school also brings in guest lecturers from private-equity and venture-capital companies, and some Booth students intern with the companies and help them evaluate new market and business opportunities.

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Average GMAT score: 732

The Wharton School earned the top ranking on our full list for all-around excellence. Though no other American school topped its tuition cost of $144,340, Wharton's stellar reputation, high average starting salary, and 95% job placement within the first three months of graduation make it the most worthwhile investment.

The first business school in the US, Wharton was established in 1881 from a $100,000 donation by industrial tycoon Joseph Wharton. The institute now boasts one of the largest alumni networks among b-schools, including notable figures like John Sculley of Pepsi and Apple, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, and billionaire financier Ron Perelman.

Location: Palo Alto, California

Average GMAT score: 733

Though Stanford's job placement rate sits lower than many other top schools at 86% — six percentage points below its figure last year — the school boasts the highest average GMAT score of any program we ranked.

Stanford grads also earned the highest starting salaries of any school at an average of $133,400 annually, before bonuses and other benefits — a hefty amount that covers the entire $132,150 price tag for the two-year degree. Top employers include Facebook, Yahoo, Yelp, and a number of other Silicon Valley-based tech companies.