Elon's undergrad business program retains top national ranking

Bloomberg Businessweek gives the Martha & Spencer Love School of Business a #42 ranking among the nation's top undergraduate programs.

Michael Rodriguez, assistant professor of marketing, works in The Chandler Family Professional Sales Center with students involved in the competitive sales team.

This year’s ranking is up one spot from the 2012 rankings. Elon debuted in the Bloomberg Businessweek survey in 2011 at #60. Bloomberg Businessweek identifies the nation’s top undergraduate business programs based on nine measures of student satisfaction, a survey of employers and academic quality.

“This ranking is wonderful news to share with our students, parents and alumni for it shows that the Love School of Business competes on a national level with the best universities – and holds its own. In North Carolina only two universities are ahead of us – UNC Chapel Hill and Wake Forest. On a national basis when one looks at private universities we are ranked in the top 25. This is wonderful company to be in,” says Raghu Tadepalli, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business.

“Credit for this ranking goes to our faculty and staff who provide our students with a wonderful education both inside and outside the classroom. Our graduating students helped us by completing the survey in large numbers and they too deserve thanks for doing so,” he said.

The only other North Carolina undergraduate business schools ranked in the top 50 were the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (#10) and Wake Forest University (#18).

Elon’s #42 undergraduate ranking follows a #1 national ranking by Bloomberg Businessweek of Elon’s part-time MBA program.

In developing the Best Undergraduate Business Schools ranking, Bloomberg Businessweek used surveys of both senior business majors and employers, median starting salaries for graduates, and the number of alumni each program sends to top MBA programs. A calculation of academic quality is also included in the methodology, combining average SAT scores, student-faculty ratios, class size in core business courses, the percentage of students with internships, and the number of hours devoted to class work. This year, 145 undergraduate business programs participated in the ranking.

The student survey score counts for 30 percent of the final ranking and Elon students praised the school for innovative academic programs, internship support, dedicated faculty and state-of-the-art facilities.

“We have unusually small class sizes so you get plenty of opportunities to engage with professors personally and with other classmates. The administration makes a strong effort to help you secure internship opportunities and jobs after college,” wrote one student.

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 Love School includes 1,347 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.