NC State MBA zooms to #47 in Businessweek rankings

The full-time NC State MBA program made a huge jump in the Bloomberg Businessweek rankings from #70 to #47 in the US and #20 among public universities.  There was a major change in methodology, which probably have helped some.  Also starting salaries last May were up $10k.  .  

This year the ranking was based on four dimensions.  NC State placed #16 on learning (first time this was ever measured, have to think it reflects the real-world projects), #25 in entrepreneurship (long overdue recognition), #48 in networking (kudos to all who engage with alums and companies), and #61 in compensation (unadjusted for cost of living and taxes of course).  

Other ACC schools that were ranked:

Virginia #9

Duke #15

UNC #23

Georgia Tech #27

Notre Dame #31 

Boston College #59 

Miami #62 

Pittsburgh #68 

Syracuse #77

Bottom line: #47 overall, #20 public universities, #6 ACC.  Great and well-deserved recognition.  

NC State MBA in Economist magazine global top 100

Great news about the NC State Jenkins MBA program!  The program has been ranked as one of the top 100 full-time MBA programs in the world by the Economist magazine.  NC State’s Jenkins MBA came in at #97.  That put NC State among the top 50 MBAs in the US and the top 25 among public US universities 

https://www.economist.com/whichmba/full-time-mba-ranking

The program was ranked especially highly along four dimensions: percentage of graduates with jobs within three months of commencement (#28 in the world), alumni ranking of career services (#49), salary increase pre and post-graduation (#52) and faculty quality (#52).  

Kudos to the faculty, staff and students who have created a world class program.  This is a well-deserved recognition.

NC State MBA ranked in top 10 for ROI

NC State’s full-time MBA program has just been ranked in the top 10 in the country for best ROI by SoFi, a financial services company that makes student loans.  

We came in at #8.  The top school for ROI was Wisconsin.  The other schools include Brigham Young, Florida, Harvard, Houston, Loyola, Pitt, Stanford, and Villanova.  SoFi calculates ROI as the ratio of average starting salary to average debt.  The data come from 60,000 student load financing applications over three years (2015-2017).  

The ranking is already getting play in the leading MBA blog Poets and Quants run by John Byrne who launched the Business Week rankings years ago.  

https://poetsandquants.com/2018/02/05/mba-programs-with-the-best-roi/

We have been saying for years that our MBA program is a great value, so it is rewarding to see some outside confirmation.  Kudos to the faculty and staff who have been so dedicated to the career success of our students and alumni!

NC State online MBA rises in US News rankings

NC State's online MBA rose 4 spots to #14 in the US in the latest US News and World Report rankings.  The program ranked very strongly in terms of student engagement and admissions selectivity.  The program has been in the top 20 every time US News has ranked online MBAs.  Our growing enrollment provides further evidence that NC State offers a great online MBA and a fantastic value.

NC State ranked #18 online MBA in the world by Financial Times

NC State's online MBA program is now ranked among the top 20 in the world according to the Financial Times.  This year is the first in which our program was eligible for the FT ranking.

The ranking is mostly based (60%) on a survey of alumni who graduated there years go.  They have done well professionally and were pleased with their online learning experience.   Faculty credentials and research productivity accounted for another 20 percent of the ranking, with student and faculty diversity and international exposure accounting for the remainder.

Where we did well compared to other schools in the top 20:
— value for money (#12)
— career progress (#9)
— aims achieved (#11)
— career services (#8)
— program delivery (#13)
— online interaction (#10)
— percentage female (#7)
— doctoral program graduates (#9, thank you econ!)
— research in top 50 journals (#11)

NC State has been featuring a story about the ranking on its home page.
https://mba.ncsu.edu/news/financial-times-ranks-nc-state-top-20-online-mba/

With the new curriculum rolling out and the enhanced flexibility students have to mix and match online and face-to-face classes, I truly believe we are positioned for even greater impact and recognition in the years ahead.  Kudos to the faculty and staff who, along with the alumni, made this happen.

NC State online MBA stays in US News top 20

More great rankings news!  For the third year in a row the NC State online MBA has placed in the US News and World Report top 20.  The program placed 18th, tied with Mississippi State and South Florida.

The US News rankings are based on faculty credentials and training, student services and technology, student engagement, peer evaluations, and admissions selectivity.  I am especially proud of how well we scored on the student engagement dimension.

I was fortunate enough this fall to have my first opportunity to teach the online core economics course.  It was one of the best teaching experiences I have ever had.  More people come to your office hours online than they do in day or evening instruction.  Accessibility matters, a lot!

NC State MBA rated in Global Top 100 by the Economist magazine

More kudos for the NC State Jenkins MBA!  The program was ranked #89 in the world by the Economist magazine in its annual Which MBA? rankings.  This is the first time our program has appeared in a global top 100.  NC State placed #24 among public universities in the US.  This will certainly help raise its reputation, especially among prospective students overseas.

Globally NC State stood out in the following areas:

• #10: % of graduates with jobs within three months of graduation.  
• #12: faculty quality
• #14: salary growth (post-MBA divided by pre-MBA salary)

Highly half of the top 100 programs were in the US, with most of the rest in Europe.  The top five programs were Chicago, Northwestern, Virginia, Harvard and Stanford.  

NC State Jenkins MBA climbs in US News rankings

The US News rankings of graduate programs came out yesterday; NC State's Jenkins MBA had its best performance yet.  The Jenkins Professional Evening program came in #34 in the part-time rankings while the full-time program came in at #52 in the full-time rankings.  Historically both programs have been in the 60s and 70s.  Last year full-time was #70 and part-time was #103 (which was a total outlier that none of us have ever figured out).  We moved up 18 spots in the full-time ranking, the second largest move of any school.  

What happened?  On the part-time side, the deans’ assessment score increased, selectivity increased and GMAT scores increased a lot.  For full-time, recruiter assessment was up, GPA was up, selectivity increased, starting salaries were up, and placement rates were up. 

This has been a remarkable year for the Jenkins MBA in terms of external recognition.  We have been #15 for US News Online MBA, #29 for Bloomberg Businessweek Full-time MBA, and #45 for Bloomberg Part-Time MBA.  

I think the best is yet to come.  The forthcoming improvements to the curriculum will put us on the cutting edge for working professional MBAs.  We have fantastic professional staff to enrich the applicant/student experience and enhance career success.  Add these ingredients to the outstanding opportunities that our faculty provide in the classroom and our hands-on “Think and Do” attitude and we have a recipe for continued success.  

Another top 20 ranking for NC State Jenkins MBA

Princeton Review today released its first ranking of the top 25 online MBA programs.  The NC State Jenkins MBA came in at #20.  This is the third top 20 ranking the program has received in the last year and a half, joining a #9 online MBA ranking from US News this year and a #20 ranking of the Professional MBA from Bloomberg Businessweek in November 2013.

Princeton Review's rankings are based on surveys of students and school administrators.  UNC-Chapel Hill was rated the #1 online MBA, followed by Indiana, IE (Spain), Arizona State and Temple.

Click here to see what NC State Jenkins Online MBA students have to say about academics and here to see what they say about how the program has helped their careers.

NC State MBA a top overperformer

Poets and Quants published an article this week on brand perception for MBA programs, pointing out that perception of program quality by deans often lags reality.  They have a nice table showing how little the dean assessments for top 20 schools change; over the last two years no school changed by more than 0.2 on a five point scale.  

But reputation often lags reality, as many schools outside the top tier do very well on objective measures of program success, such as employment outcomes for graduates.  P&Q came up with a list of the top over-performers, defined as schools whose overall rank is well above their dean assessment score.  NC State's Jenkins MBA came in tied for 4th (with Alabama and Binghamton), with the top three slots going to UT-Dallas, Rutgers and BYU.  Here is a direct quote from the article: 

For years, North Carolina State (Jenkins) was a recruiter’s dream, an unheralded program with a tech-driven, hands-on, multidisciplinary curriculum. While the program is no secret to companies like IBM, it has seemingly been stuck in neutral among academics, posting its second consecutive 2.7 score (despite soaring 23 spots overall from #88 to #65). With the school continuing to build partnerships within the nearby Research Triangle Park to complement its STEM roots, Jenkins is definitely a school to watch for innovation.

NC State is working to continuously improve the MBA experience.  In time the deans at other business schools will recognize what great opportunities we provide.  

More great ranking news for NC State Jenkins MBA

The US News MBA rankings came out today and, once again, the NC State Jenkins MBA is moving up.  The full-time program moved up 23 spots from #88 last year to #65 this year; the part-time program moved up 12 spots from #73 to #61.  According to Poets and Quants, only one other program made a bigger jump upward.

Why did the ranking go up?  On the full-time side there was improvement across the board: higher recruiter assessment score, higher starting salary and bonus, higher placement rates, higher GPA and GMAT, and more selective admissions.  On the part-time side the incoming class had more work experience.  Among local part-time programs, NC State ranks ahead of Elon (#77), UNC-Greensboro (#80), UNC-Wilmington (#175), Fayetteville State (#184) and East Carolina (#196).

NC State Jenkins online MBA ranked in top 40 by US News

The US News rankings of online MBA programs were officially released today and I am proud to be able to announce that the NC State Jenkins MBA came in at #36, tied with Michigan Tech and Denver.  We were the highest ranked program in North and South Carolina and came in ahead of such established programs as Syracuse (#39), Florida State (#1 in football but #43 in online MBA), Northeastern (#51), Thunderbird (#51), East Carolina (#58) and George Washington (#64).

NC State Jenkins online MBA scored very high on admissions selectivity (#9 in the country) and also did well in terms of faculty credentials and training.  We just graduated our first online MBAs in fall 2013 and look forward to climbing higher in the rankings next year.

NC State Professional MBA ranked #20 by Bloomberg Businessweek

Great news to share with the NC State Jenkins MBA community: Today Bloomberg Businessweek released its 2013 Part-Time MBA rankings and we came in at #20, up 10 spots from two years ago.  NC State's MBA placed #10 in the country in academic quality; we earned an A in teaching quality and curriculum.  I am very pleased to see the program get the recognition that its students, alumni, faculty and staff have worked so hard to achieve.

US News ranks online program #42

US News came out with its first ranking of online MBA programs this week.  In a ranking of 128 schools, the Jenkins MBA came in at #42.   We scored well on faculty credentials and admissions selectivity; we have work to do on student engagement and technology, at least according to US News. 

Washington State clocked in at #1, followed by Arizona State, Indiana, Florida and Cal State-Fullerton.  UNC-Chapel Hill declined to participate. 

With an online program that has only been in existence for 16 months, I think this is a reasonably good showing.  I also am confident that we will do much better the next time around. 

Bloomberg Businessweek rankings

Last Thursday the Bloomberg Businessweek ranking for full-time MBA programs was announced.  For the first time NC State’s full-time Jenkins MBA was eligible to be listed.  This has been one of the key long-term goals of our program.  Our program is only 10 years old, so getting on this list is an important achievement.  There are literally hundreds of schools in the US that would like to be on the list but do not meet the size and quality criteria.

There were 114 schools globally who were invited to participate in the survey, 80 of them were American schools and the rest were in Canada, Europe and Asia.   We were ranked #63 in the US.  This is higher than our most recent US News ranking (#78).  In fact it is higher than we have ever appeared in US News except for 2008 when we were #59.

The Bloomberg Businessweek ranking is based on student satisfaction (45%), employer satisfaction (45%) and faculty research productivity per capita (10%).  The student satisfaction scores came from a survey of full-time students who graduated in May 2012. 

We did well in one dimension that did not enter into the rankings, but is important to students: affordability.  Only eight programs in the US had lower tuition and fees than we do.

Bloomberg Businessweek will do its next survey of full-time MBAs in two years.  Next year, it will do a survey of part-time MBAs, where we ranked #30 in the US last year.

Moving up in the rankings requires a joint concerted effort from students, faculty and staff.  The faculty and the staff will make sure that the program is up to date and prepares students well for successful careers.  Students will dedicate themselves to taking full advantage of opportunities and supporting the program, especially when they become alumni.  As we all strive for excellence and improvement, the Jenkins MBA will rise in the rankings and become more visible in the years ahead! 

Nocera on rankings

I have been out of the country for a week and a half.  In catching up, I ran across a link on the NYU Stern website to this great article by NYT columnist Joe Nocera on the latest US News college rankings.  Schools like Harvard and Princeton come out on top because they are highly selective in admissions, have small classes, and spend lots of money thanks to huge endowments.  If a school like NC State wants to move up, it needs to make itself look more like Harvard and Princeton.  Money quote:

U.S. News likes to claim that it uses rigorous methodology, but, honestly, it’s just a list put together by magazine editors.

Or what used to be a magazine; US News stopped publishing two years ago.

Parents and students might want to ask themselves whether this is really useful information to guide their decision making.  Do you want to be in a small class listening to a very highly paid professor (or more likely, his graduate assistant) or do you want to be employed at graduation at a good salary with great prospects for the future?  The US News rankings of undergraduate programs give zero weight to employment outcomes, so you might need to check the WSJ rankings which come from employers. 
Interestingly, colleges can come up with salary and employment data for the graduates of their professional schools (including MBA), so why cannot they get this data for undergraduates as well?

Jenkins MBA hits Business Week top 30 part-time programs

Great news from Business Week!  The Jenkins MBA was rated in the top 30 (right at #30) in this year's Business Week rankings of part-time MBA programs.  Jenkins also was ranked the 5th best program in the South. 
http://www.businessweek.com/business-schools/

The ranking hinges on three major components: student satisfaction, academic quality and post-graduation outcomes.  Jenkins ranked 23rd in the country on post-graduation outcomes, representing the percentage of students receiving promotions and the average pay increase, where it ranked 18th.  The program came in 37th in academic quality; we had high scores on student's work experience and percentage who complete the degree, whereas our GMAT average pulled us down a little bit.  Students gave high marks to the caliber of their classmates and teaching quality, but were less pleased with facilities (hopefully fixed with the new RTP campus). 

Business Week and US News are the two most widely respected rankings of business schools.  I am pleased to see our students, faculty and staff receive the recognition they deserve. 

US News rankings

US News and World Report issued their 2012 rankings of business schools last week.  NC State's Jenkins MBA was tied with William and Mary for 83rd in the full-time rankings and tied with 13 other schools for 59th in the part-time rankings.

Last year, we were 66th in the full-time rankings and we have always been in between 59th and 74th place, so what happened?  Forty percent of the rankings are based on two surveys, one of deans and one of recruiters, where they rank 400+ programs on a 1-5 scale.  The dean evaluations of NC State's MBA have held steady at 2.7-2.8 for years, but it appears that the recruiter evaluation dropped by about 0.2-0.3 points this time around.

Another 35% of the rankings are based on the employment results for May 2010 graduates.  The percentage with jobs at graduation fell from 65 to 44%, which definitely hurt.  Starting salaries and the percentage with jobs 90 days after graduation were basically the same as the year before.

The final 25% of the rankings hinge on three numerical indicators of the quality of the students who entered in August 2010: GPA, GMAT and percentage admitted.  There was a modest slip in the mean GMAT score from 616 to 603.

One other note: when all of the scores are aggregated together we received an overall score of 35.  The distribution of schools by scores is highly bunched in this range of the distribution; schools with a score of 38 were tied for 73rd whereas schools with a score of 41 were tied for 63rd.  Small differences in recruiter evaluations, GMAT scores and placement rates yield large changes in the rankings.  This is why I have always thought it would be better to categorize schools into five or six groups instead of ranking them.  There really is not that much difference between the schools in 60th and 80th places.  (On the other hand, Stanford had a score of 100 and Harvard had 98 and I would say they are quite different from schools below the top 10.) 

My reaction: I am disappointed in this year's results, but I tend to take the long-run view of things and am confident that the program will do better in the future.  All Jenkins MBA stakeholders -- students, alumni, faculty, and staff -- can have a positive impact on future rankings by helping us recruit the best students and prepare them for the challenges they will face upon graduation. 

US News rankings

Good news from US News for NC State's Jenkins MBA. Our full-time program was ranked #66 in the US, tied with Alabama, Oklahoma and Utah. Among public universities we placed #33. To gain some perspective there are 433 accredited business schools in the US. The US News full-time rankings are based on the evaluations of b-school deans and recruiters as well as objective information on the quality of entering students and placement outcomes. As a relatively new program, NC State's Jenkins MBA has typically done best on the objective measures.

Part-time programs were ranked for the first time and ours was ranked #70 tied with 12 other schools. These rankings were based on a single metric: deans' evaluations on a 1 to 5 scale. My job will be to make sure other deans better understand how great our program is before the next survey.

Business Week rankings of part-time programs

Business Week issued its rankings of part-time programs last Thursday. Two items of note:

1) NC State was not included in the rankings because we had an insufficient response rate to the online survey BW conducted of recent graduates and soon-to-be graduates. An open plea to our MBA students and alums: please make sure the MBA program office has an email address that you check regularly. With our growing full-time program, we are likely to be eligible for more rankings (e.g., Business Week full-time).

2) Part-time programs across the country are having difficulty attracting students due to decreased employer support for educational expenditures. The BW article also notes that part-time students at most schools are frustrated because they do not have access to career services and on-campus recruiting. Unlike most part-time programs, NC State's working professional MBAs take MBA 500 just like the full-timers and also have full access to information sessions and on campus recruiting.