The Top Undergraduate Business Programs
- Special Report: Top Undergraduate B-Schools
- Forums: Undergrad Business Programs
- Slide Show: The Top 50 Undergrad Business Schools
- Methodology: How We Make the Rankings
Use this interactive table to examine BusinessWeek's 2008 rankings
What a difference a year makes. When BusinessWeek ranked the nation's top undergraduate business programs last year, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School came out on top, with the University of Virginia a distant second. How distant? Relative positions are based on an "index number," which reflects the sum total of all five parts of our ranking methodology. As the No. 1 program, Wharton scored 100 points on the index, and Virginia 92.7--a chasm in a ranking where the differences between schools can be measured in tenths or even hundredths of a point.
This year, Virginia gained more than six points, coming within a hair's breadth of Wharton and the coveted No. 1 spot. The reason: Wharton's student and recruiter satisfaction ebbed somewhat, and Virginia's median starting salary for grads increased more than 10%, to $58,000. Last year's No. 7 school, Notre Dame, ousted University of California-Berkeley to reclaim the No. 3 spot it held in 2006, the first year of our ranking, a modest move of just four spots. But its performance on the index was even more impressive than Virginia's--it rocketed up 12 points, to 96.7.
