Babcock earns global and national recognition
The Babcock Graduate School of Management has been honored recently in several national and international rankings. Each of these rankings surveys evaluates different criteria, and methodologies vary widely from publication to publication.
BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek has included Babcock among the top graduate schools in the nation in its biennial ranking of “The Best B-Schools” (10/06). The magazine ranked the top 30 programs and listed the next eight alphabetically in its second tier. Babcock is among those in the second tier, which places the school among the top 38 programs nationally. With almost 400 graduate business programs in the U.S. currently accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the ranking puts Babcock among in the top 10% of schools in the nation.
The BusinessWeek ranking is based on surveys of alumni (45%), corporate recruiters (45%) and faculty research (10%). The 50-question online survey asks students to critically evaluate their school on everything from the quality of teaching to the effectiveness of career services. Recruiters rate their top 20 schools according to the quality of a school’s graduates and their company’s experience with them. They can only rate schools at which they have recruited, on or off campus, in recent years. The survey data from both students and recruiters is weighted – 50% coming from 2006 surveys, and 25% each coming from 2004 and 2002 surveys. The faculty score is based on publications in journals selected by the BusinessWeek editorial staff.
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal, in its most recent annual survey of corporate recruiters, ranked the school No. 7 among the nation’s regional schools (9/06). This is the second straight year the school ranked seventh in the survey, which the Journal conducts jointly with Harris Interactive. It reflects solely the feedback from corporate recruiters who hire MBA graduates. The regional grouping includes schools that, in the determination of the Journal / Harris Interactive, attract recruiters based primarily in their home area or neighboring state.
The top student attributes valued by the corporate recruiters surveyed are characteristic of our alumni, as well: 1) Team players, 2) Ethical, trustworthy, 3) Realistic expectations with regard to salaries and job responsibilities, 4) Academic prowess.
Entrepreneur
In late September, Babcock’s entrepreneurship program was ranked No. 17 nationally among graduate business programs by Entrepreneur magazine. Entrepreneurial coursework, internships, competitions, business incubator and the activities of the Family Business Center all were included as part of the school’s response to the survey, which was conducted jointly by Entrepreneur and The Princeton Review. In describing the survey, the magazine reported, “High-ranking schools demonstrated a commitment to practical, hands-on experiential learning to provide skills that translate into real-world businesses.”
The Economist
Among global business schools, Babcock continues to rank among the world’s best. The Economist ranks the school No. 38 among U.S. schools and No. 70 in the world in its annual global 100 ranking released in early October.
Financial Times
Wake Forest is ranked No. 38 among U.S. schools and No. 76 in the world in the Financial Times’ Fall 2006 international survey of executive MBA programs. The ranking is based on surveys of executive MBA graduates from the class of 2003, and primarily measures alumni career progress and percentage salary increase compared to pre-MBA salary. This ranking also recognized Wake Forest’s MBA faculty as being No. 32 among U.S. schools and No. 45 in the world for research efforts as measured by the total number of articles published in 40 top international academic and practitioner journals from January 2002-June 2005.
Earlier this year, the full-time MBA program was included on the Financial Times list of the world’s best MBA schools. Babcock ranks 43rd among U.S. business schools and No. 70 in the global ranking, which includes 100 schools from around the world. Among subcategories of the survey, the school ranks 14th among U.S. graduate business schools and 20th in the world for percentage increase in salary reported by alumni. The salary increase was calculated using the graduates’ pre-MBA salary and their salary three years after graduation. Babcock’s alumni reported a weighted average salary increase of 135 percent (a weighted average computed from salaries reported from the classes of 2000, 2001 and 2002). Additionally, Babcock is ranked 19th among U.S. schools and 29th in the world for percentage of alumni reporting that their aims had been achieved.
