2014 U.S. News Undergraduate Business Ranking

2014 U.S. News Undergraduate Business Ranking by: John A. Byrne on June 30, 2014 | 2 Comments Comments 60,197 Views June 30, 2014When U.S. News World Report asked the deans and senior faculty at accredited business schools to rate the quality of undergraduate business programs, the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School came out on top. Wharton was followed by MIT, UC-Berkeley, Michigan and New York Universitys Stern School.Compared to U.S. News overall ranking for national universities, its undergraduate business program list is a stripped-down, no frills version. It is based entirely on the magazines survey of business school deans and senior faculty, many of whom vote on the basis of a programs reputationnot its true quality.   In the spring of 2013, participants were asked to rate the quality of all programs they were familiar with on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). Some  36 percent of those surveyed responded.The results of that survey vary greatly from both U.S. News overall ranking of national universitieswhich is based on a much wider set of criteria including SAT and ACT scores, high school rank of enrolled students, graduation rates and other factors. Indeed, the numerical ranks of schools  also differ greatly from the only other authoritative ranking of undergraduate business programs published every year by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which started ranking undergraduate programs in 2006.DIFFERENCES IN METHODOLOGY YIELD VASTLY DIFFERENT RESULTSWhile U.S. News, for example, ranks the undergraduate program of the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame  in a tenth-place tie with Cornell and Indiana, BusinessWeek gives the school its top rating. Mendoza, in fact, has finished first in each of the past four years of the BusinessWeek ranking from 2013 through 2010. BusinessWeeks methodology is much more complicated and inclusive. It is based on surveys of students, employers and schools. The student portion of the survey al one  includes  44 questions about teaching quality, access to faculty, school facilities, career services, and more. Overall, meantime, U.S. News ranks Notre Dame as the 18th best national university in the U.S. If youre considering majoring in business at Notre Dame, should you think of it as the No. 1 school, the No. 10 school, or the No. 18 university? Thats a legitimate question and thats why its helpful to look at the U.S. News ranking in comparison with how the university fares in U.S. News overall ranking as well as how a given program is ranked by Bloomberg BusinessWeek (U.S. News releases its annual ranking every September, while BusinessWeek publishes its annual list early April). At the end of the day, we think that a universitys brand and reputation often matters more than a ranking of a program, so on many levels the overall rank of a university is even more important than the rank assigned its business program. Thats especially true because many universities, inclu ding Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown, dont have an undergraduate business program. More often than not, a student can major in economics at these higher ranked schools and use that degree to get a prestige job in a business organization.So whats better? A degree from Harvard, Stanford, Yale, or Princeton with an economics major or a degree from one of the other top universities with a business major? If you can get into the Harvard, Stanford, Yale, or Princeton, we think thats a far better bet than simply going to the best college with a highly ranked business major. Of course, those four schools are among the most selective in the world. Very few of the students who apply to those schools are able to gain admission.Thats why, however flawed, these rankings can be helpful to both parents and would-be students. They give you at least some indication of which schools have the best business majors for undergraduates.(See following page for our ranking tables) Page 1 of 3 123 »