JMU's College of Business Gets Straight A's in "BusinessWeek" Rankings

You could say James Madison University's College of Business made the dean's list again in 2010. The business school remains in the top 5 percent of undergraduate business schools ranked by "BusinessWeek" magazine, receiving exceptionally high marks from students and straight A's for teaching quality, services and job placement. 

In its fifth year of surveys, "BusinessWeek" ranked JMU's business school among the top public offerings in the nation. The B-school ranked 14th among public institutions. Among public and private, the CoB at JMU has been inching its way up in the rankings since 2008 when it was in position 54. In 2010, the business school edges its way into spot number 41. 

In the survey that uses nine measures of student satisfaction, postgraduate outcomes and academic quality, student responses count toward 30 percent of the final totals. Student surveys placed the school in the top 5 among public institutions and 11th among public and private programs. 

"After five years of surveys, we are starting to get a clearer picture of how we compare in this particular ranking," said Robert D. Reid, dean of the JMU's business school. "While rankings among schools shift slightly from year to year, a few things have remained constant. First, we have consistently ranked in the top 5 percent of business schools; second, students are highly satisfied with their experience; and finally, the quality of our faculty, services and high job placement rates keep us in the top tier of public offerings, and pretty competitive even with private schools."

In fact, last year in a subsequent survey, "BusinessWeek" ranked JMU's business school third among public schools and fourth overall in the nation for return on investment. The rankings were calculated by comparing annual tuition and required fees and median starting salaries for 2008 graduates. 

"BusinessWeek" uses nine measures to calculate rankings after surveying more than 20,000 business students, more than 500 employer recruiters and gathering data from business schools about their programs. Current surveys and data are combined with data from previous years to arrive at a score for each school. The publication gathers data about everything from faculty qualifications to facilities. Since the first ranking in 2006, students have responded positively in favor of JMU's College of Business. 

For more information, contact Toni Mehling, communication director in JMU's College of Business, at (540) 568-5169 or mehlintd@jmu.edu.