Wednesday November 4, 2009
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The Top Undergraduate Business Programs

Special Report: For Business Students, an Uncertain Future

Slide Show:The Top Undergraduate Business Programs

How the mighty have fallen. For the first time since BusinessWeek launched its ranking of undergraduate business programs in 2006, University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School is not our No. 1 program. It was unseated by the University of Virginia—a program that, incidentally, costs a quarter of the tuition Wharton charges. Virginia, a distant second in 2006 and 2007, made significant gains in 2008. In 2009, Virginia—along with Notre Dame—both scored better on our student survey, which counts for 30% of the final ranking, allowing them to capture Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. Even so, Wharton didn't fall far. The school fared far better on the recruiter survey than Virginia did and had a higher median starting salary for graduates—$61,000 vs. Virginia's $58,000. It also has much higher SAT scores among business majors and a significantly smaller class size in core business classes.

Click column heading once to reorder from highest to lowest. Click twice to reorder from lowest to highest.

2009 Rank	2008 Rank	School Name	School Type	Program Length (years)	Annual Cost($)	Full-time Enrollment	Student Survey Rank	Recruiter Survey Rank	Median Starting Salary	MBA Feeder School Rank	Academic Quality Rank	Index Number	Faculty Student Ratio	Average SAT Score	Average ACT Score	Teaching Quality Grade	Facilities & Service Grade	Job Placement Grade

1	2	Virginia (McIntire) Charlottesville	Public	2	9,490	655	1	52	58,000	5	5	100.00	10.40	1355	30	A+	A+	A+
2	3	Notre Dame (Mendoza) South Bend, Ind.	Private	3	36,847	1,669	2	12	55,000	11	16	97.29	18.57	1405	32	A+	A+	A+
3	1	Pennsylvania (Wharton) Philadelphia	Private	4	37,526	2,528	13	13	61,001	10	1	95.78	10.89	1440	32	A+	A	A+
4	6	Michigan (Ross) Ann Arbor	Public	3	10,848	1,050	18	8	60,000	7	8	94.47	15.22	1346	30	B	A	A+
5	7	Brigham Young (Marriott) Provo, Utah	Private	2	4,110	1,783	6	1	50,000	17	40	93.12	19.00	1231	27	A	A+	A+
6	11	UC-Berkeley (Haas) Berkeley, Calif.	Public	2	8,932	668	24	2	55,000	3	16	92.85	25.70	1388	31	B	A+	A
7	9	MIT (Sloan) Cambridge, Mass.	Private	3	36,390	225	5	43	60,000	4	12	92.41	2.70	1481	33	A+	A+	A+
8	4	Cornell Ithaca, N.Y.	Private	4	20,364	712	3	46	55,000	2	21	92.18	19.24	1390	31	A+	A+	A+
9	5	Emory (Goizueta) Atlanta	Private	2	36,336	622	4	24	55,000	8	12	91.26	9.90	1361	31	A+	A+	A
10	10	Texas (McCombs) Austin	Public	4	9,354	3,942	12	3	55,000	18	40	84.51	34.00	1301	29	A	A+	A+
11	13	Villanova Villanova, Pa.	Private	4	37,530	1,731	8	26	52,000	39	5	83.00	16.03	1302	30	A+	A	A+
12	20	Richmond (Robins) Richmond, Va.	Private	4	38,850	643	14	64	52,500	9	1	82.92	12.04	1280	29	A+	A+	B
13	12	North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) Chapel Hill	Public	2	5,397	632	11	38	53,500	16	8	82.67	11.00	1343	30	A	A+	A+
14	21	Wake Forest (Calloway) Winston-Salem, N.C.	Private	2	36,975	399	34	19	51,000	15	1	82.55	14.25	1353	30	A+	A+	A
15	8	NYU (Stern) New York	Private	4	38,686	2,305	29	23	59,500	21	8	81.04	11.35	1435	32	A	B	A
16	15	Washington U. (Olin) St. Louis	Private	4	37,248	730	32	36	56,500	1	21	80.23	10.50	1432	32	A+	A+	C
17	14	Boston College (Carroll) Boston	Private	4	37,410	1,936	20	15	55,000	14	27	80.00	21.00	1331	30	A+	A	A+
18	24	Miami U. (Farmer) Oxford, Ohio	Public	2	11,443	2,056	26	4	48,000	28	16	79.26	14.90	1225	27	A	B	A
19	22	Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) Pittsburgh	Private	4	39,754	428	45	47	60,000	13	8	78.64	9.50	1393	31	A	A	A
20	16	Indiana (Kelley) Bloomington	Public	4	9,311	4,576	15	14	52,000	29	27	77.56	22.74	1266	29	B	A	A+
21	17	USC (Marshall) Los Angeles	Private	4	37,694	3,509	42	5	53,000	24	27	76.31	26.79	1391	31	A	A	A+
22	18	Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Public	4	13,394	2,850	28	7	54,000	23	40	76.14	21.10	1340	30	C	A	A+
23	28	Babson Babson Park, Mass.	Private	4	36,096	1,851	21	37	50,000	30	12	74.79	22.00	1254	28	A+	A+	B
24	19	Georgetown (McDonough) Washington, D.C.	Private	4	38,122	1,345	72	51	60,000	6	12	72.69	25.00	1365	31	A	C	C
25	33	U. of Washington (Foster) Seattle	Public	2	6,802	1,645	38	10	48,500	38	27	72.11	19.89	1268	28	B	A+	B
26	25	Lehigh Bethlehem, Pa.	Private	4	37,550	1,472	44	31	55,000	33	16	71.48	21.50	1293	29	A+	A	A
27	34	Northeastern Boston	Private	4	33,969	2,914	22	60	55,000	65	16	70.41	20.50	1294	29	A	A	A+
28	NA	American (Kogod) Washington, D.C.	Private	4	33,283	841	10	56	50,705	41	27	70.20	13.00	1218	27	A+	B	A
29	47	San Diego San Diego, Calif.	Private	4	34,264	850	40	11	50,000	50	40	70.02	15.88	1190	26	A+	B	B
30	29	William & Mary (Mason) Williamsburg, Va.	Public	2	10,246	454	35	62	52,500	12	21	69.92	11.35	1317	29	A+	A+	B
31	23	SMU (Cox) Dallas	Private	4	33,170	932	7	70	50,400	26	40	69.57	20.00	1413	32	A	A	A
32	35	Santa Clara (Leavey) Santa Clara, Calif.	Private	4	34,950	1,785	37	35	50,500	35	21	68.85	17.30	1218	27	A+	A	A+
33	30	Bentley Waltham, Mass.	Private	4	34,488	3,887	17	40	52,500	71	40	68.79	26.26	1230	26	A	A+	A
34	32	Texas Christian (Neeley) Fort Worth	Private	4	28,250	1,640	9	88	50,000	43	27	67.15	17.50	1171	26	A+	A+	A
35	43	Maryland (Smith) College Park	Public	4	8,005	2,784	52	32	53,000	34	27	65.09	19.11	1360	31	B	A	B
36	26	Rensselaer Polytech (Lally) Troy, N.Y.	Private	4	37,900	407	30	59	50,000	47	21	64.93	16.00	1267	28	A	A+	B
37	31	Texas A&M; (Mays) College Station	Public	4	7,844	4,302	19	20	47,700	44	61	64.10	25.47	1172	26	B	A	A
38	38	Penn State (Smeal) University Park	Public	4	15,250	5,943	36	9	52,000	48	74	63.88	43.00	1221	27	B	A	A
39	41	Case Western (Weatherhead) Cleveland	Private	4	34,450	400	78	67	52,500	25	5	63.33	13.00	1270	27	A+	B	C
40	37	Wisconsin Madison	Public	2	8,568	1,407	27	57	50,000	19	50	62.27	28.05	1293	28	B	B	A+
41	27	Fordham New York	Private	4	35,257	2,004	64	39	55,000	59	27	61.96	20.70	1193	26	A	B	B
42	59	Ohio State (Fisher) Columbus	Public	4	9,810	3,536	23	17	47,000	80	66	61.19	35.00	1203	27	B	A	A+
43	42	Boston U. Boston	Private	4	37,050	2,009	55	74	50,000	20	21	60.78	18.80	1294	29	B	B	C
44	54	James Madison Harrisonburg, Va.	Public	4	6,964	3,121	16	68	50,000	53	54	60.60	25.00	1102	24	A	B	A+
45	36	Baylor (Hankamer) Waco, Tex.	Private	4	26,084	2,713	33	66	45,000	60	27	60.20	23.45	1193	25	A	A	B
46	NA	Chapman (Argyros) Orange, Calif.	Private	4	34,700	877	68	21	48,000	55	40	59.51	21.00	1200	26	A+	A	C
47	NA	Ohio Athens	Public	4	8,907	1,843	25	79	49,030	72	48	59.08	29.80	1120	25	B	B	A
48	40	Binghamton Binghamton, N.Y.	Public	4	6,692	1,420	49	42	57,000	31	61	58.98	27.50	1304	28	A	B	A+
49	52	Syracuse (Whitman) Syracuse, N.Y.	Private	4	35,398	1,815	70	58	53,000	58	27	57.09	24.20	1200	26	B	B	B
50	49	U. of Miami Coral Gables, Fla.	Private	4	36,836	2,161	47	93	50,000	49	27	57.08	14.50	1262	28	A	A+	B
51	55	Georgia Tech Atlanta	Public	4	5,518	1,291	31	45	50,500	51	66	56.76	27.00	1270	28	B	A	A

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Note: Annual program costs include tuition and required fees for in-state students Starting salaries are 2008 medians. Letter grades represent only a part of the total student survey results; highly ranked programs may have low letter grades, while lower-ranked programs may have high letter grades. In each category, the top 20% among all 101 ranked programs earned A+s. The next 25% got As, the next 35% got Bs, and the bottom 20% got Cs. No Ds or Fs were awarded. NR=Not Ranked.

Data: BusinessWeek, Cambria Consulting

Research by: Geoff Gloeckler and Fred Jesepersen, with Brian Burnsed, Alison Damast, Lindsey Gerdes, Louis Lavelle, Dan Macsai, Alysa Teichman, Anne VanderMey

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