The Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame took the No. 1 spot for the fourth year in a row in the just-released Bloomberg Businessweek 2013 “Best Undergraduate Business Schools” ranking.
“There is so much that goes into the educational experience of being part of the Mendoza College of Business, including the spirit of the students, faculty, alumni and University as a whole,” said Roger D. Huang, Martin J. Gillen Dean of the Mendoza College. “The ranking is a wonderful opportunity to thank all of those who make this a special place — especially the Mendoza College Undergraduate Advising Office, the Notre Dame Career Center and the Undergraduate Admissions Office. And of course, our students, who never cease to amaze me.”
Mendoza’s undergraduate studies ranked first in student satisfaction and fifth in employer satisfaction — the two main ranking criteria. The College also earned scores of “A+” for teaching quality, facilities and services, and job placement.
According to the article accompanying the ranking, students especially lauded the College’s well-rounded business curriculum, strong liberal arts bent and focus on ethics. “Academically, Mendoza is not all that different from other upper-tier business schools,” said Rob Nelson, a senior business student at Notre Dame quoted in the article. “But our Catholic tradition puts extra emphasis on ethics and the idea that business should be used to generate more than just profits.”
Another student commented, “Mendoza College of Business is unique because it cares for the whole student. They care about our academic pursuits, but also care about our personal development and future careers. The academic advising office is extremely supportive and always willing to help. The professors are the most unique aspect of Mendoza. They work hard to cultivate personal relationships with students.”
The University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce ranked second and Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management ranked third.
To rank the programs, Bloomberg Businessweek used nine measures, including 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. Twenty-one were eliminated because of insufficient response rates in the student survey, employer survey or both.
A complete list is available here.
The Mendoza College of Business currently enrolls 1,928 undergraduate students in six majors: accountancy, finance, marketing, management consulting, management entrepreneurship and IT management. After completing the University’s innovative First Year of Studies program, Notre Dame business majors enter the Mendoza College in their sophomore year.
The Mendoza College also offers graduate degree programs — including a Master of Business Administration, Executive Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in Accountancy, Master of Science in Business and Master of Nonprofit Administration — as well as non-degree executive education and nonprofit professional development programs.
Contact: Carol Elliott, 574-631-2627, Elliott.37@nd.edu