The Grossman School of Business at the University of Vermont (UVM) was recognized as an outstanding business school according to The Princeton Review, for their pioneering Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) program. According to the Princeton Review rankings released in July, the SI-MBA program ranks as the #2 Best Green MBA, and carries the distinction of being the top ranked program accredited by the AACSB. SI-MBA was also recognized as the #5 Best MBA for Nonprofit.
Grossman School is one of 213 institutions nationwide that the education services company has named to its Best On-Campus MBA Programs list which is part of The Princeton Review's Best Business Schools for 2025 report. The Princeton Review editors weighed more than 60 data points in their selection of MBA programs for the 2025 best business schools lists. The selection of on-campus programs was derived from the company's surveys in 2025 of administrators at 244 schools offering on-campus MBAs as well as its surveys over the past three years of 22,800 students enrolled in the programs.
The survey of administrators requested data on the program's academics, faculty, career services, and other topics. The survey of students asked them to rate their program's academics, professors, technology, campus life and other topics, and to report on their career plans and satisfaction with the program.
In the Princeton Review's website profile of Grossman School, the editors “highly recommend the Grossman School of Business and all the schools that made our 2025 best business school lists,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review's Editor-in-Chief. "The Sustainable Innovation MBA program at UVM shares four characteristics that informed our criteria for designating it as 'best': excellent academics, robust experiential learning components, outstanding career services, and positive feedback about them from their students we surveyed."
What is Being Said About the Program
Many of the factors that led to the high ranking of the Sustainable Innovation MBA program are highlighted in the Princeton Reviews profile of the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. SI-MBA uniquely offers a nationally-acclaimed one-year Sustainable Innovation MBA, which directly addresses the current challenges in environment, ethics, poverty and inequality through the lens of enterprise and entrepreneurship. The program was designed at the school from the ground up, enriched by the innovative and green surroundings of Burlington, and “truly incorporates sustainability into its entire curriculum, instead of just adding a couple sustainability classes here and there as saddlebags.” Students take nine months of classes and then complete a three-month practicum in the summer, in which they a have full-time, hands-on experiential engagement with either existing companies or new ventures locally or around the world. A “holistic perspective on social business” and classes taught by “thought leaders focusing on disruptive innovation” round out the intense experience of a UVM SMBA degree, and the subject matter is “very relevant and necessary for navigating the challenges of the future of the global economy.”
Part of the Princeton Review’s process is to also, gather the thoughts of the student body at each institution. Many of the SI-MBA students reflected on the strong support from the faculty, noting that all of the professors are “caring of students and experts in their field,” and the majority give “outstanding lectures” and are committed to “superior focus on sustainability, social responsibility and emerging markets” that underlies the mission of the Sustainability MBA. Small class sizes allow for an “all-consuming” environment where “every professor knows each student by name and students develop strong relationships with each other.” They “set an excellent tone and culture from the very first day.”
Students also found the program to be “especially interested in sustainability and social justice,” as well as being “intellectually stimulating, sincere, hardworking, [and] collaborative.” As a one-year MBA program, students are “in the classroom full-time,” and “the community and inclusion of all students is a big strength.” This is a group of “smart critical thinkers and strong speakers”: “Some of us have keen analytical minds, others have strong emotional intelligence, and some have both.” Students are “a really cohesive group” that strives to achieve cooperatively, and if any student should find themselves struggling with any subject matter, “other students always reach out to them to help.”
Above all, the best thing about the program is “the culture that was created by the directors, professors, staff, and students.”
The SI-MBA program just graduated the cohort of 2025 in an inauguration ceremony this past weekend, the 2026 cohort will begin their orientation the week of August 18. To learn more about the Sustainable Innovation MBA program at UVM, visit uvm.edu/si-mba.
About The Princeton Review
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Photos: Ben Chiappinelli & Grossman School Staff
