BusinessWeek recently named the University’s Commerce School as the No. 1 undergraduate business school in the country in the magazine’s fourth annual rankings.
The rankings are based on five measurements, BusinessWeek staff writer Geoff Gloeckler said.
The first is a survey of senior business students at 137 universities, which asks about their overall experiences with admissions, teaching, classes and career services. The second measurement is a survey of company recruiters.
“They’re asked to give us the top school in their mind in terms of who’s producing the best graduates and the best hires for them,” Gloeckler said.
The third factor is “academic quality,” which includes factors such as SAT scores, student-teacher ratios and class sizes. The rankings also consider the starting salaries for students who enter the workforce after graduation and the “MBA feeder rank,” which looks at how many graduates are entering top MBA programs, Gloeckler said.
The BusinessWeek rankings are the result of research and calculations, not the opinion of BusinessWeek, he said. Commerce School Dean Carl Zeithaml said the primary factor in the Commerce School’s ranking was a high level of student satisfaction.
“That result comes from decades of great students, dedicated faculty and staff who work to create a great curriculum and great experience for our students and alumni and recruiters who are loyal to the school and consistently come back to engage with the program [and] hire our students,” Zeithaml said. “The entire cycle essentially feeds on itself.”
Zeithaml said he believes this cycle, as well as years of hard work, have resulted in recognition for the University like BusinessWeek’s ranking.
“Our students have a great experience and they’re still getting jobs in a tough economy,” he said, explaining why the Commerce School stands out from other undergraduate business schools.
Zeithaml also noted that the culture of the school contributes to its high rankings.
“It starts with the community,” Zeithaml said. “The McIntire community that we really try to develop and the sense that our students are important and are the center of that community is something we really try to emphasize.”
Until this year, the Commerce School had been ranked the No. 2 undergraduate business school for three years in a row, in the company of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Notre Dame’s undergraduate business school.
“I think that everybody takes great pride in being No. 1,” Zeithaml said. “I believe that in some ways it’s kind of a final validation of the way everybody feels about the school.”
The academics and degrees at each of these schools are valued, Gloeckler said, but each school also benefits from an influx of recruiting.
“The bigger companies, the more well known and respected companies are visiting campuses more and are looking more to the students on the top,” Gloeckler said. “These students are going to have an easier time getting the most desirable positions.”
Fourth-year Commerce student Alan Wayne said though rankings were a factor in his decision to enroll at the University, the reason why he chose McIntire was because of the firms that recruit students.
Wayne added that his experience with the Commerce School has been profitable in more ways than one.
“They’ve been helpful in every way that I hoped they could be,” Wayne said. “They’ve helped me get a great job and learn anything I wanted to learn.”
Wayne said he also has benefited from the Integrated Corporate Experience program, which may have helped set the Commerce School apart from elite schools like Wharton and New York University. The Commerce School’s emphasis on hands-on case projects and group work helps students transition more easily to working in the real world, Wayne added.
The No. 1 ranking also could help Commerce students if the school gains name recognition as a result, which Gloeckler said is the greatest benefit of BusinessWeek’s rankings.
“In the case of Wharton, people just assume that Wharton’s at the top,” he said, which may not be true “for a school like McIntire that might not be as recognizable as a name.”
If the Commerce School gains more name recognition, it also may maintain its top-ranked position for a longer time, he added.
It is not only the Commerce School, though, that may benefit from the positive review.
“I think it’s great for the whole University,” Zeithaml said. “We all need good news these days, and I think that for everybody involved in the School and ... for the University, it’s nice to have this recognition during a tough time.”
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