Walton College Again Ranked in Top 50 by Businessweek

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas ranks in the top 50 among public undergraduate business programs in the 2014 report from Businessweek.

The Walton College placed 47^th among public schools and 104th in the rankings of public and private business schools. Those rankings were up from 48^th among public business schools and 105^th among all the top business schools in 2013.

Walton College increased its scores in Businessweek’s student survey rank and employer survey rank and received an “A-plus” grade from the magazine for job placement, said Karen Boston, assistant dean for undergraduate programs. The report also upped Walton’s grade in facilities and services from a B to an A.

Businessweek uses five sources for the undergraduate ranking: a student survey, a recruiter survey, media starting salaries for graduates, the number of graduates admitted to the top 35 M.B.A. programs and a measure of academic quality. The academic quality measure consists of:

• SAT/ACT scores for business majors
• Full-time faculty-student ratios in the business program
• Average class size in core business classes
• The percentage of business majors with internships
• The number of hours students spend preparing for class each week.

 The information on test scores, faculty-student ratios and class sizes was provided by the school. The data about internships and hours of preparation came from the student survey.

To be eligible for the Businessweek survey, each school has to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and exceed the survey’s cutoff for at least two of these three criteria: university-wide SAT and ACT scores, percentage of applicants accepted and percentage of students coming from the top 10 percent of their high school class. Businessweek ranked 132 programs in its 2014 report, eight more than in 2013.