The ranking comes from Poets&Quants, a business education outlet that released its survey results on Jan. 22.
The undergraduate business degree program at Elon’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business ranks among the best in the country, according to new rankings from business education news outlet Poets&Quants.
Elon’s program ranks No. 40 in the nation in the survey by Poets&Quants, which conducts the most comprehensive assessment of undergraduate business programs at private and public institutions of all sizes. Among just private colleges and universities, Elon’s program ranked No. 26. Elon ranked particularly well in the categories of Academic Experience (No. 17 nationally) and Career Outcomes (No. 28 nationally).
Raghu Tadepalli, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, said recognition in such a competitive ranking speaks to the quality of education the school delivers and the impact its alumni are having after they graduate.
“The Love School of Business ranks among the top business schools in the country thanks to dedicated faculty and staff who place student learning and success at the heart of what they do,” Tadepalli said. “The achievements of our alumni are a testament to the education and experiences they find at Elon.”
Poets&Quants for Undergrads compiled the 2024 rankings based on a representative survey of thousands of alumni and school-reported data. Poets&Quants explains that the survey methodology focuses on three main components — “the quality and diversity of students enrolling in a program (Admissions Standards); the ability of a B-school to nurture, challenge, and grow those young minds (Academic Experience); and how the market and world’s top employers respond to those graduates when leaving the school (Career Outcomes).”
Factoring into the rankings again this year was information about the percentage of first-generation college students, underrepresented minorities, international students and women among the student bodies of the schools which was used to create a diversity average, a metric introduced for the 2023 rankings. The 2024 rankings included three years of alumni data this year instead of two.
Elon achieved its highest marks in the area of academic experience, which was based on surveys of alumni who had been away from school for at least three years to determine how satisfied they were.
Among the questions alumni were asked were whether they would recommend the school to a friend, whether the business degree was worth the time and cost and how effective the career advising effort of the school was. Beyond a battery of 17 core questions, Poets&Quants asked alumni whether they had a “significant experience,” defined as a major consulting project, thesis, or other program feature instrumental to their professional development, or a meaningful global immersion, and if their first jobs after graduation were in their desired job functions, industries and companies.
Elon also received high marks in the area of career outcomes for alumni, which looked at the percentage of students with internships before graduation, with full-time jobs within three months of graduation along with average salary and signing bonuses for the classes of 2022 and 2023. The ranking also took into consideration the percentage of students in the classes of 2022 and 2023 who had internships before their senior year. .
For admissions standards, the rankings considered the acceptance rate, the percent of alumni finishing in the top 10% of their high school class; the percent of alumni reporting being a National Merit Scholar finalist or semifinalist; the diversity average of first-generation college students, underrepresented minorities, international students and women; and the average SAT/ACT converted to SAT score.
Read the full methodology for the survey and rankings for more information.
Poets & Quants is headed by Editor-in-Chief John Byrne, who along with being the founder of C-Change Media formerly served as executive editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, Businessweek.com and Fast Company. He created the first regularly published rankings of business schools for Businessweek in 1988 and has authored several business school guidebooks.