2009 BW UGrad B-School Rankings: Main Street up, Wall Street down

hawkette · 03-03-2009, 04:51 PM

Business Week has released its 2009 Undergraduate Business School rankings. Congratulations to the University of Virginia-McIntire on its ascension to the top spot, displacing U Penn-Wharton after a long run at the top. Schools with far less of a Wall Street orientation and a greater dedication to Main Street (and probably a lower profile among the prestige-obsessed), Notre Dame and BYU were notable for their ranking in this year Business Week Top 5.

The change in rankings might be best headlined: "The king is dead; long live the king" The king, in this case, is Wall Street and some of its most prominent suppliers of undergraduate talent (U Penn Wharton and NYU-Stern) were visible decliners in the 2009 rankings. Other notables that dropped significantly in rank from 2008 were Cornell and Emory, also both well known for their proclivity to send many graduates to the Street.

Beyond the move of U Virginia to # 1, UC Berkeley made the biggest move of any college in the top 10 as it moved up five places. In the second 10, U Richmond-Robins and Wake Forest-Calloway also saw a strong rise in rank, moving up by 8 and 7 spots, respectively.

Here are the Top 50 colleges and how their rank changed vs 2008:

2009 BW Rank , 2008 BW Rank , Undergrad Business School

1 , 2 , U Virginia (McIntire)
2 , 3 , Notre Dame (Mendoza)
3 , 1 , U Penn (Wharton)
4 , 6 , U Michigan (Ross)
5 , 7 , BYU (Marriott)
6 , 11 , UC Berkeley (Haas)
7 , 9 , MIT (Sloan)
8 , 4 , Cornell
9 , 5 , Emory (Goizueta)
10 , 10 , U Texas (McCombs)
11 , 13 , Villanova
12 , 20 , U Richmond (Robins)
13 , 12 , U North Carolina (Kenan)
14 , 21 , Wake Forest (Calloway)
15 , 8 , NYU (Stern)
16 , 15 , Wash U (Olin)
17 , 14 , Boston College (Carroll)
18 , 24 , Miami U (Farmer)
19 , 22 , Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
20 , 16 , Indiana U (Kelley)
21 , 17 , USC (Marshall)
22 , 18 , U Illinois
23 , 28 , Babson
24 , 19 , Georgetown (McDonough)
25 , 33 , U Washington (Foster)
26 , 25 , Lehigh
27 , 34 , Northeastern
28 , na , American (Kogod)
29 , 47 , U San Diego
30 , 29 , W&M (Mason)
31 , 23 , SMU (Cox)
32 , 35 , UC Santa Clara (Leavey)
33 , 30 , Bentley
34 , 32 , TCU (Neeley)
35 , 43 , U Maryland (Smith)
36 , 26 , Rensselaer (Lally)
37 , 31 , Texas A&M (Mays)
38 , 38 , Penn State (Smeal)
39 , 41 , Case Western (Weatherhead)
40 , 37 , U Wisconsin
41 , 27 , Fordham
42 , 59 , Ohio State (Fisher)
43 , 42 , Boston U
44 , 54 , James Madison
45 , 36 , Baylor (Hankamer)
46 , na , Chapman (Argyros)
47 , na , Ohio U
48 , 40 , SUNY-Binghampton
49 , 52 , Syracuse (Whitman)
50 , 49 , U Miami
51 , 55 , Georgia Tech

dstark · 03-03-2009, 04:58 PM

Well, I was going to go to U Penn, but now because the schools are so similar, I'm going to the higher ranked school. Can't wait to go to Notre Dame.

rodney · 03-03-2009, 05:02 PM

Miami U: why up 6 spots?...does anybody know anything about the biz school?

kguo7 · 03-03-2009, 05:47 PM

"Well, I was going to go to U Penn, but now because the schools are so similar, I'm going to the higher ranked school. Can't wait to go to Notre Dame."

well make sure you get your transfer apps ready because next year some other school will top notre dame. LOL.

seriously, there arent many changes going on at the colleges. businessweek just like to shuffle the rankings around a little bit so its not the same every year. if you look at the categorical rankings for the schools from one year to the next theyre almost identical.

dstark · 03-03-2009, 06:10 PM

"well make sure you get your transfer apps ready because next year some other school will top notre dame. LOL."

LOL

2-iron · 03-03-2009, 06:17 PM

Miami (OH) just built a really neat-looking new facility. Very old-fashioned and beautiful.

Though I doubt beauty played a big role in its 6-spot climb.

bclintonk · 03-04-2009, 03:26 AM

Oh, hawkette, how could you forget to mention your favorite, the University of Michigan, way up there at #4?

Three of the top 6 and 4 of the top 10 schools in this ranking are publics. Actually, 5 of the top 10, as Cornell's "business school" is the Department of Applied Economics and Management in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, part of the publicly supported land grant side of Cornell. Sweet.

Alexandre · 03-04-2009, 07:18 AM

And isn't the University of Pennsylvania public?! hehe! Ok, maybe not, but BYU is sort of public...for Mormons.

hawkette · 03-04-2009, 10:21 AM

To me, it's very reassuring to me to see that Business Week has the courage and insight to rank schools that are well regarded in the real world, but not in the academic world. Consider these undergraduate business schools ranked by Business Week in their Top 20 and contrast this with the rankings assigned by the academia-only ratings of USNWR.

BW Rank, USNWR Rank, Undergrad B-School

2, 17 Notre Dame

7, 35 BYU

13, 65 Villanova

20, 74 U Richmond

It should also be loudly proclaimed that ND, Villanova and U Richmond were recognized by BW for Teaching Quality excellence, a trait that USNWR's PA rankings have traditionally downplayed, if not completely ignored. Each of these schools (and 17 others in the BW Top 50) got a Teaching Quality grade of A+. For students looking for a college that actually cares about the quality of the product delivered in the classroom, such grades can provide great insight.

The performance of schools like Notre Dame, BYU, Villanova and U Richmond is not a surprise to anyone familiar with their students/graduates and their performance in the workplace. Those schools routinely produce excellent graduates who have smarts, a strong work ethic, a good ability to work with others and, unlike students/grads from many of their more highly touted peers, a degree of humility about their place in the workplace. Employers know all of that and value those traits. Congrats to these schools and their students.

bc,
No need for me to promote your school as I know that the U Michigan Mafia will do their usual campaigning about their school.

nyccard · 03-04-2009, 10:59 AM

What "real world" exists such that a Notre Dame (Mendoza) undergrad business degree is better than a Wharton or MIT Sloan degree?

FWIW, where I am from, Mendoza isn't even as good as NYU Stern. If you don't mind being an accountant, by all means go to Notre Dame for undergrad business. If you prefer high finance, there are at least a dozen other places you should go instead.

bluebayou · 03-04-2009, 11:31 AM

Hawkette:

Two thoughts:

1) kinda comparing apples and oranges in your post #9. Many of the big dogs (HYPS, for example) in USNews do not have an undergrad b-school, so it only makes sense that lower-ranked schools will "move up" when looking at only such biz programs. One could achieve a similar result by only focusing on campus conservatories.

2) the BW ranking is highly influenced by the wining and dining of recruiters, including such things as supplying them with free lunch during interview days. Cal-Haas figured this out a few years ago when they jumped high into the top 10. Obviously, last year they got fat and happy and lost a few spots, only to put out the red carpet again to the recruiters and voila, back in the top 10.

OTOT, point #2 can also be good for students bcos it means Career Services is bending over backwards to make recruiters happy and, hopefully, it will trickle down to the interviewees.

btw: perhaps someone can slice the Mich data on OOS kids at Ross.

endlessrecession · 03-04-2009, 11:45 AM

Of course everyone knows that "rankings" are utter nonsense, right?

hawkette · 03-04-2009, 11:54 AM

nyc,
I think that most folks realize that if you want to work on Wall Street in NYC, then Notre Dame is never going to be the # 2 most preferred college. Thankfully, BW's survey is about business and not just Wall Street and how prestige is weighed in midtown Manhattan. ND's reputation in the broader business community and its alumni base is as strong as any in the USA and certainly a lot more broadly distributed (both by geography and industry) than some of the NE elites.

blue,
I think you are absolutely correct about the ability of students coming from colleges without undergrad business programs. They can definitely compete for these jobs and frequently are able to jump to the top of the desirability list. Many excellent and highly ranked schools fall into this category and the common feature is the quality of their student bodies. This quality is the attraction rather than some hazy perception of faculty quality.

Re your recruiter comment, I agree but I think that this also is a major impediment to U Virginia. They achieved the # 1 ranking despite having a very weak rank among recruiters. Not sure what is driving that ranking as I think most objective observers would hold McIntire grads in a class equal to what comes out of Wharton, Haas, etc.

dstark · 03-04-2009, 11:55 AM

"I think most objective observers would hold McIntire grads in a class equal to what comes out of Wharton, Haas, etc. "

There is no such thing as objective observers....geez

nyccard · 03-04-2009, 11:57 AM

IMHO, HYPS do not offer undergraduate business programs because, rightly so, they do not believe in vocational training. Wharton, as good as it may be, is still a trade school. That is why HYPS > Wharton.