Undergrad Business Program Rankings

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Why do you rank fewer undergraduate business programs in the magazine than you do online?

Space constraints prevent us from publishing the full list in the magazine. The full rankings are online at BusinessWeek.com.

In the table that accompanies the ranking story, where do the letter grades come from?

In some tables, either in the magazine or online, BusinessWeek includes several letter grades for each ranked program. They represent the assessment of students about those aspects of their program. Each grade is based on one or more questions in the student survey—so, for example, the "teaching quality" grade would be based on student answers to questions concerning teaching quality in business courses and teaching quality in nonbusiness courses.

The top 20% in each category earns A+s. The next 25% receives As, the next 35% receive Bs, and the bottom 20% get Cs. There are no Ds or Fs awarded. The questions used for the letter grades do not represent the survey in its entirety. Therefore it is possible for a highly ranked program to receive one or more low letter grades, and a poorly ranked program to receive one or more high letter grades. The letter grade for "teaching quality" and the academic quality score used in the ranking measure are two different things; the former represents student perceptions of teaching quality, the latter is comprised of five equally weighted measures of program quality (See: "How do you measure educational quality?") It's possible for a school to receive a high academic quality rank and a low grade in teaching quality, or a low academic quality rank and a high grade in teaching quality.

What is the Index Number supplied in the table?

This is the number on which the ranking is based. It allows students, parents, and schools to determine relative differences between ranked programs. For example, the difference between a No. 1 ranked program with an index number of 100 and a No. 2 ranked program with an index number of 99 is negligible. However, the difference between two programs with index numbers of 94 and 89 is substantial. The index number is determined by adding the standardized scores for all five ranking measures—student survey, recruiter survey, starting salaries, MBA feeder school rank, and academic quality rank—for each school. That number is then converted into a 100-point scale.

Why do you make a distinction between public and private schools?

Public schools typically operate under rules that require them to accept a large percentage of applicants. Because our methodology uses data on test scores, among other things, we identify public and private schools so that readers can take that into consideration.

Why do you make a distinction between two-year and four-year programs?

Because our methodology relies in part on class size data that may put some four-year programs at a disadvantage, we supply this information so that readers can take that into consideration.

What role, if any, do schools play in the surveys, beyond providing e-mail addresses for the student survey or distributing that survey on BusinessWeek's behalf?

The schools have no other role. However, they do complete surveys of their own to provide statistical data. Those data are then used to create an online profile for each program that appears on BusinessWeek.com.

Do the schools have any input into the content of the surveys? Is the student survey ever provided to schools?

The surveys are prepared by BusinessWeek. The schools, while they may provide input from time to time, do not decide which questions to ask or how to ask them. This is necessary to maintain the integrity and independence of the ranking process. To prevent schools from coaching students or recruiters on how to answer the surveys, neither survey is made available to the schools.

Are schools permitted to communicate with their students about the student survey?

BusinessWeek cannot prevent schools from communicating with their students. However, they should not coach students, either directly or through the media—such as student newspapers—on how to answer the survey. Nor should they make any statements that emphasize the importance of a high ranking or in any other way attempt to prevent students from answering the survey honestly. Any evidence of coaching will be taken seriously by BusinessWeek and may be grounds for eliminating a school from the rankings.

Are the data collected from the schools for the online statistical profiles used in the ranking?

No. While some of the questions asked in the survey that schools complete for their online statistical profiles are similar to those used to calculate each school's Academic Quality score, the data used for the Academic Quality score does not come from the school survey. The data used for the rankings comes from a separate email survey consisting of approximately 5 questions that is distributed to schools participating in the ranking in February.

What happens if a school doesn't fill out the survey for the statistical profile by the deadline without asking for a reasonable extension?

The profile will not be created. If the survey is partially completed, those questions left unanswered will be filled in with NAs.

How do you find students to interview?

In addition to traditional reporting methods such as campus visits, BusinessWeek will contact students directly via phone or e-mail, but only if they indicate on the survey that they are willing to be interviewed for a story.

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