Bloomberg Businessweek ranks Elon's Martha and Spencer Love School of Business among the nation's top undergraduate business programs in its 2011 rankings, which were released March 3. Elon ranks #26 in academic quality and receives an "A" grade for facilities and services.
This is Elon’s first appearance in the annual Bloomberg Businessweek ranking, which identifies the top undergraduate business programs based on measures of student satisfaction, postgraduation outcomes and academic quality. Elon’s overall ranking is #60 out of the 113 schools identified as the best undergraduate business programs. Elon ranks #19 for its entrepreneurship programs and #25 for its emphasis on sustainability in business courses.
“Our ranking as #60 overall and #26 for academic quality demonstrates the value of the collective effort of our faculty and staff,” says Mary Gowan, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business. “We have worked strategically over the past several years to create an engaged learning environment that prepares students well for their future roles as business professionals and leaders. The recognition of our program in this public forum attests to our success, especially by achieving a ranking this high the first time we are ranked.”
In developing the Best Undergraduate Business Schools ranking, Bloomberg Businessweek asked graduating seniors to complete surveys that evaluated the quality of teaching, the percentage of business majors with internships, the hours students spend every week on schoolwork and other factors. In addition to surveying students, Bloomberg Businessweek polled 775 corporate recruiters, asking them to identify programs that turn out the best graduates, and which schools have the most innovative curricula and most effective career services. The ranking included an academic quality gauge that included average SAT scores, the ratio of full-time students to faculty, and average class size.
Only four other North Carolina universities were selected for the Bloomberg Businessweek ranking, the University of North Carolina (ranked #8), Wake Forest University (#19) and North Carolina State University (#100). Business schools at East Carolina University, UNC-Wilmington and Western Carolina were not considered for the ranking and other undergraduate business programs in the state were not eligible because they did not meet Bloomberg Businessweek’s criteria for accreditation, program size, age, test scores, grade point averages for business majors and number of full-time tenured faculty.
The Martha and Spencer Love School of Business is accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, an honor achieved by less than five percent of business schools in the world. The school includes 1,129 students who study in the departments of accounting, economics, finance, management, and marketing and entrepreneurship. The Love School includes a prestigious Business Fellows program, the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center, the Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, the William Garrard Reed Finance Center, and an Executive Education program. Businessweek has ranked Elon’s MBA program as the #1 part-time program in the South and the sixth best in the nation.
The Love School recently kicked off its 25th anniversary year, which will include several events celebrating the school’s founding in 1985.