NEW YORK, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School once again comes in at No.1 on BusinessWeek's second annual ranking of "The Best Undergrad B-Schools." Outstanding faculty and high-caliber students make Wharton a premier program, but Wharton isn't standing still. In 2006-07 it introduced more opportunities to study abroad, more student involvement in faculty research, and a cohort system for undergrads that allows incoming students to take classes as a group, much the way MBAs do.
The University of Virginia, meanwhile, made a repeat appearance at No.2, underscoring how different programs can excel on their own terms. A tiny two-year program at a public university, with in-state annual tuition of just $7,845, Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce could not be more different from Wharton, an elite four-year private-school program with enrollment and tuition about four times as high. Yet Virginia rates higher on student satisfaction, sends a larger percentage on to top MBA programs, and is roughly on par with Wharton on key measures of academic quality.
To identify the best business programs, BusinessWeek used five measures, including a survey of nearly 80,000 business majors at top schools and a poll of undergraduate recruiters. The ranking is based on the "index number," which represents the sum of all five ranking measures. BusinessWeek also calculated letter grades on teaching quality, facilities and services, and job placement based on the student survey.
BusinessWeek's complete rankings of the Best Undergraduate Business Schools is available in the March 19, 2007 issue of BusinessWeek, on newsstands March 9th. Expanded content, including the full methodology, interactive tables, in-depth profiles, and a discussion forum are available on BusinessWeek.com at http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/undergraduate. Additionally, BusinessWeek's nationally syndicated TV show, BusinessWeek Weekend, will give prospective students and their parents tips on what to look for when choosing schools.
The Best Undergrad B-Schools
Rank School Location
1 Pennsylvania (Wharton) Philadelphia
2 Virginia (McIntire) Charlottesville
3 UC-Berkeley (Haas) Berkeley, Calif.
4 Emory (Goizueta) Atlanta
5 Michigan (Ross) Ann Arbor
6 MIT (Sloan) Cambridge, Mass.
7 Notre Dame (Mendoza) South Bend, Ind.
8 Brigham Young (Marriott) Provo, Utah
9 NYU (Stern) New York
10 Cornell Ithaca, N.Y.
11 Georgetown (McDonough) Washington
12 Villanova Villanova, Pa.
13 Texas (McCombs) Austin
14 Boston College (Carroll) Boston
15 North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) Chapell Hill
16 Washington U. (Olin) St. Louis
17 Wake Forest (Calloway) Winston-Salem, N.C.
18 Indiana (Kelley) Bloomington
19 USC (Marshall) Los Angeles
20 Lehigh Bethlehem, Pa.
21 Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) Pittsburgh
22 Illinois Urbana-Champaign
23 Richmond (Robins) Richmond, Va.
24 SMU (Cox) Dallas
25 U. of Washington Seattle
26 Northeastern Boston
27 Santa Clara Santa Clara, Calif.
28 Wisconsin Madison
29 William & Mary (Mason) Williamsburg, Va.
30 Maryland (Smith) College Park
31 Bentley Waltham, Mass.
32 Rutgers Camden, N.J.
33 Babson Babson Park, Mass.
34 Fordham New York
35 Miami U. (Farmer) Oxford, Ohio
36 Penn State (Smeal) University Park
37 Boston U. Boston
38 Baylor (Hankamer) Waco, Tex.
39 Texas Christian (Neeley) Fort Worth
40 Rensselaer Polytech (Lally) Troy, N.Y.
41 Ohio State (Fisher) Columbus
42 Minnesota (Carlson) Minneapolis
43 Florida (Warrington) Gainesville
44 Georgia Tech Atlanta
45 Clemson Clemson, S.C.
46 San Diego San Diego, Calif.
47 U. of Miami Coral Gables, Fla.
48 Michigan State (Broad) East Lansing
49 Marquette Milwaukee
50 Texas A&M (Mays) College Station
