Saturday, April 29, 2006

Top US Undergraduate Business Schools

Business Week has a regular rankings table for US and Global Business Schools for a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). However, for the first time ever, they have released a rankings list for the Top 50 Undergraduate Business schools in the United States.

According to Business Week, undergrad business programs are "getting MBA-like respect, and competition to get into them is hotter than ever".
To identify the best undergraduate business programs, BusinessWeek used five unique measures, including a survey of more than 100,000 business majors at top schools and a poll of undergraduate recruiters. To better understand career outcomes, we also looked at starting salaries for graduates and how many each school sent to top MBA programs. Finally, an academic-quality score--a combination of five measures including SAT scores and faculty-student ratios--identified schools with the smartest, hardest-working, and best-served students.
The top 20 schools are listed on the left (click for a larger image). You can also obtain the full top 50 rankings with additonal information such as scoring details as well as student comments in the PDF document here.

Originally, I was actually surprised at not finding Harvard any where on the list. Then I was reminded by a comment by a reader for the earlier post on United Kingdom vs United States, that there wasn't a degree for Business Administration offered there.

As shown above, University of Pennsylvania topped the rankings list. Some of you will be more familiar with the Wharton Business School which is placed 3rd in the MBA rankings.

Here, the class is made up of just 25 sophomores, most of whom Souleles knows by name... It's the kind of personal attention that landed Wharton at the top of BusinessWeek's inaugural ranking of the nation's best undergraduate business programs. But the school's merits go well beyond that. To succeed in the ranking, which incorporates five measures -- of student engagement, postgraduation outcomes, and academic quality -- schools must be firing on all cylinders. Clearly, Wharton is, landing in the Top 10 on four of the five ranking measures. Small classes, talented faculty, top-flight recruiting -- and a four-year format that allows its ultracompetitive students to delve deeply into business fundamentals -- lofted Wharton to the No. 1 position.

So, for those seeking to pursue undergraduate degrees in Business Administration in the United States, you now have a new guide to help you make your decision.

Footnote: Hmmmph... 25 in a class and that's "personal attention"? :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not sure that a BBA degree is highly valued even in the USA. It is too general by nature.

Anonymous said...

unfortunately, these days..to remain competitive, one would be needing some sort of specialization and generalization... a techincal degree such as biotechnology or engineering or architecture etc together with an MBA are the most common and important combination these days.. more and more employers seek this dual-combination for the sake of generalisation and specialization...

BBAs are running outta steam..and it's the BEngs and MBAs etc are the ones that are highly sorted these days... again, if you're an excellent BBA..then join the boat

Anonymous said...

25 people per class means that there are only 25 people doing the BBA degree in any given year. it does not mean that there are 25 people in a physical class with one professor.

this 'class' is limited to 25 people only... which means admission rates to wharton undergrad program are about 1% each year. how's that for personal attention? :)

Anonymous said...

Yeh, 25 to a whole cohort? No way! It's more like 600 per batch to make a total of 2400 undergrad population at Wharton.

Anonymous said...

Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.