Campus Life: A User's Guide

College Prowler rates the nation's universities on all aspects of campus life. How do BusinessWeek's Top 50 undergraduate business programs stack up?

By Geoff Gloeckler

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For each of the past four years, BusinessWeek has ranked the nation's best undergraduate business programs, asking business students their opinions on everything from professors and facilities to career services and work load. With this information, prospective students interested in studying business have a roadmap to where they might want to start their college search and what to look for in a business program.

But let's be honest, only a small amount of a business student's time in college is actually going to be spent within the walls of the B-school. It's important to understand what the universities that house the top business programs are really like. Are the dorms inhabitable? Is the campus safe? How's the social scene?

To find some answers, applicants can go to the school's Web site, look through brochures, maybe even visit the university, but there's only so much you can garner from a campus tour and a guidebook. The best way to get answers is to talk to the students who actually attend the schools.

To do that, BusinessWeek has teamed up with College Prowler, a company that specializes in grading universities on various aspects of campus life based on the opinions of the students themselves. The goal: to help prospective business students choose a school that not only offers a strong business program but is also a good fit for their needs. Explains Luke Skurman, CEO of College Prowler, "You can get a good education at a lot of places, but where are you going to fit in and where are you going to be happy? If you're really into safety, or you're really into dining, or you're really into computers, are you going to a school that meets those needs? Some schools are stronger in certain categories and some are stronger in others."

grading the college experience

Based on student opinions from nearly 300 universities, Skurman and his team assign letter grades—from A+ to F-—to schools in 20 different areas from housing to safety and covering nearly every aspect of the college experience. Using this information, BusinessWeek has created report cards for each of the universities which house the top 50 undergraduate business programs.

Of those schools, the University of Southern California (USC Marshall Undergraduate Business Profile), ranked 21st by BusinessWeek, boasts the most satisfied student body overall. This comes as no surprise unless you happen to be allergic to beautiful weather, good food, strong athletics, and top-notch facilities. The alumni network, or "Trojan Family," is very supportive when it comes to undergrads searching for jobs or internships—a valuable commodity, especially in light of the current job market. The only complaints that USC students had were about parking and safety, with those areas earning grades of C+ and B-, respectively.

Following close behind in terms of overall student satisfaction is the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin McCombs Undergraduate Business Profile), home of BusinessWeek's tenth-ranked business program. Students at UT love the local atmosphere, the nightlife, and the warm weather, though parking is an issue. Students who are able to get into the business school are the envy of campus, but admission comes with a word of warning from one student contacted by College Prowler: "Don't take above 15 hours unless you are into inflicting pain on yourself."

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