BYU Undergraduate Business Program in Top 10

PROVO, Utah — Apr 28, 2006 — BusinessWeek magazine ranked Brigham Young University’s undergraduate management program eighth overall and first among recruiters in the most comprehensive ranking of U.S. undergraduate business programs to date. The magazine cited the program’s stellar accounting program and ethics-based education as strengths.

“It’s a great honor to be counted among the top one or two percent of business programs in the country,” says Ned C. Hill, Marriott School dean. “Our undergraduate program is really a hidden gem. We have terrific students and a talented faculty that just keep getting better.”

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School ranked No. 1 followed by No. 2 University of Virginia, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 MIT, No. 5 Emory, No. 6 Michigan—Ann Arbor, No. 7 NYU, No. 8 BYU, No. 9 Texas—Austin and No. 10 Indiana—Bloomington.

“We have a faculty that really cares about undergraduate students,” says Joan Young, director of the BYU undergraduate management program. “They make time for students and invest a lot of energy in their teaching and mentoring.”

Although the school’s curriculum is constantly changing, the program was overhauled four years ago to incorporate many of the successful aspects of the school’s nationally recognized MBA program. “We put more focus on teams and reduced the size of core classes,” Young explains.

Only 84 colleges met BusinessWeek’s stringent criteria to be considered for the undergraduate business rankings. Schools had to offer an undergraduate business program, be accredited by AACSB and exceed cutoffs for at least two of the following: SAT and ACT scores, percentage of applicants accepted and percentage of students coming from the top 10 percent of their high school class.

Colleges were ranked according to five equally weighted sets of data: a survey of nearly 100,000 students, a recruiter survey, median starting salaries for graduates, the number of graduates admitted to 35 top MBA programs and an academic quality measure that consists of SAT/ACT test scores for business majors, full-time faculty-student ratios in the business program, average class size in core business classes, the percentage of business majors with internships and the number of hours students spend preparing for class each week.

“We recognize that no ranking system can fully measure a program’s success, but it’s nice to see the spotlight shine on our students and graduates who are having a tremendous impact throughout the world,” Hill says.

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, public management, information systems and organizational behavior. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.