School Of Business Climbs Ranks

By: Andrew Peters

Posted: 10/10/06

The UConn School of Business continues to garner national acclaim this fall, scoring higher than ever in many new college rankings.

The Wall Street Journal, Princeton Review, and U.S. News and World Report all ranked the Business School among the nation's best.

UConn's MBA program earned its first-ever ranking in the Wall Street Journal, claiming the 51st and final spot in its regional rankings. The regional list indicates that a school's students are recruited by regional companies upon graduation.

To compile the rankings, the Wall Street Journal narrowed a field of 1400 schools down to 294. Recruiters are then asked to find the top 51 schools based on their perception of the school, future recruitment prospects and mass appeal, according to Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Suresh Nair.

"The Wall Street Journal ranking is confirmation of the quality of education here," said Interim Dean Mohamed E. Hussein. "If the product wasn't good, [recruiters] wouldn't keep coming back."

According to Nair, recruiters have been impressed by the Business School's internships, experiential learning components, corporate collaborations and the Student-Managed Investment Fund, a program which provides $1 million annually to be managed by finance students.

"We're much better than many other schools," Nair said. "Our graduates are in high demand. When students join companies and recruiters come back, they tell us glowing things about our recruits."

The Princeton Review also recognized the Business School, ranking its facilities 10th in the nation, and U.S. News and World Report ranked the real estate program fifth overall.

Hussein and Nair said the Business School has excellent facilities in Storrs, Hartford, Waterbury and Stamford. They cited Stamford's Edgelab facility, a joint venture between UConn and General Electric, as a major asset.

The administration also said it plans to keep the school's reputation growing for years to come.

"On various fronts, we're doing lots of things," Nair said.

"We're trying to expand the number of companies that recruit here," Hussein said.

The school will continue to expand its experiential learning while starting new programs like the "Evergreen MBA," which will allow alumni to return to UConn and refine their skills years after graduation, Nair said

"The idea [of Evergreen MBA] is to keep graduates' skills and knowledge up to date," Hussein said. "They'll be able to come back and see what's new."

Hussein said the Business School will also be improving its curriculum, placement and seminars in the coming years, but that's not to take away from the top-notch programs already in place.

"I'd call [the plans] enhancements rather than improvements," said Michael J. Deotte, director of marketing, "because the programs we have now are already exceptional."

Hussein was honored that the school received such high marks this year, but said he wasn't surprised at all.

"Hopefully the program will keep moving up the ranking ladders and improving," he said.