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Darden ranks 16th in the U.S.

The Darden School once again proved itself among the top business schools in the world, finding itself high in the Financial Times' Global MBA rankings. Darden ranked 16th in the United States and 33rd globally. Darden was ranked one position lower nationally this year than last year, and its world ranking is also slightly below its average world ranking of the past several years?; however, according to Ken White, Darden's vice president of marketing and communications, the drop in rank is not significant.

"When you examine the numbers, the differences between one and even five spots are so small that sometimes you cannot determine why you improved or slipped," White said.

The benefit of the Financial Times poll, like other similar publications, is that it provides extensive data to the Darden School, White said, noting, "We try not to worry about the number but rather the data they give us."

The Financial Times calculated Darden's average alumni salary to be $131,135 and found that within three months of graduation, 97 percentage of students were employed. This data is compiled along with other criteria, such as standards of diversity and research, to determine a final ranking.

White explained that Darden suffers in the research category because of the teaching style employed by the school.

"We are bit of a disadvantage as far as research is concerned because we are a case-method school," White said.

Darden uses business world case studies to conduct research and improve students' understanding, instead of publishing in scholarly journals. These cases are not counted by the Financial Times in its evaluation, White explained.

"Each publication bases its rankings on different criteria -- we look at the data the publication provides, and we see if that data can at all be helpful to us," White said.

Because all rankings are calculated differently, White explained, the Darden administration tends to follow as many as six different polls to self-evaluate and improve.

--compiled by Ayn Wisler

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