UA Graduate Business Program Ranks Among Nation’s Best, According to Princeton Review

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama’s Manderson Graduate School of Business has earned three top-10 rankings in the most recent issue of The Princeton Review’s “Best Business School” guide.

UA’s graduate business program ranked fourth for campus facilities, fifth for quality of professors and eighth for administration.

The rankings came as no surprise to students in the program. “I have been pleasantly surprised since I have been here at what great facilities the school has,” said first year M.B.A. student Sam Brewer.

UA ranked ahead of schools such as Duke and Harvard on the best professors list; Harvard, the University of California-Berkley and Virginia for best facilities; and Emory University in the best-administered category. There were a total of 237 schools surveyed for this year’s edition. No other business graduate program in Alabama is listed in the top 10 in the 11 categories included in the guide.

“The ranking is a testament to our excellent faculty, staff and fundraising efforts,” said Susan Carver, assistant dean and director of M.B.A. programs. The school’s multimillion-dollar Sloan Y. Bashinsky Computer Center and Angelo Bruno Business Library are part of an infrastructure that is recognized as state-of-the-art and among the best anywhere. The business school also has more than 40 multimedia classrooms and wireless routers that allow students to access the Internet from laptops and PDAs.

Carver said the school’s investment in facilities is reaping rewards. Forbes magazine ranked UA’s business graduate program 21st among regional schools for return on investment last year. U.S. News and World Report placed the program 60th in its annual graduate schools rankings released this spring.

“I am excited about the rankings,” said second year M.B.A. student Elizabeth Powell of Ocean Springs, Miss. “We always knew how great the business school is, and it is great to see it finally get some national recognition.”

Second year student John McDaniel of Tuscaloosa agreed with Powell. “We are no longer the best kept secret in the country,” he said.

Currently, there are 65 students enrolled in the graduate business program this year. This number is up from 55 in previous years. Carver said she expects the program to grow to more than 80 students per class in the next few years. “Overall, our goal is to make the value of the degree increase with each passing day,” she said.

The annual rankings are based on an unscientific survey of 16,000 graduate business school students who were asked to score their university in a number of areas.

It was conducted during the course of the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 academic years. The vast majority of student surveys on which the guide is based were completed via an online survey.

For more information about the Manderson Graduate School of Business go to www.business.ua.edu . To see the graduate school rankings go to www.princetonreview.com.