How would you appraise the business program’s efforts to bring you into contact with practicing professionals, including your school’s alumni network, in the business community?
The best business schools smartly tap into the local business community as well as their own alumni networks to build great undergraduate experiences for students. Those relationships have limitless upside for students and graduates. Local business leaders and alums can be a valuable source of door-opening to all kinds of opportunities, from mentorship and coaching to internships and full-time job offers.
Some schools have invested the resources to make this a core part of the student experience. Other schools, shockingly, are still in the dark ages when it comes to building a long-term relationship with even their alumni, never mind the most influential executives and entrepreneurs in the area. Which schools have a lock on this? Not surprisingly, perhaps, the programs that routinely get high marks from alumni on other aspects of the undergraduate experience tend to do really well here. University of Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business and Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business again come out on top. They are followed by Lehigh, Brigham Young, and Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. UT-Austin and Minnesota Carlson are also in the mix as well. On our ten-point scale, with ten reflecting the highest possible score, 9.43 topped the list while a score of 7.31 was at the bottom, with an average of 8.71.
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| School | Grade |
|---|---|
| 1. University of Notre Dame (Mendoza School of Business) | A+ |
| 2. Indiana University (Kelley School of Business) | A+ |
| 3. Lehigh University (College of Business & Economics) | A+ |
| 4. Brigham Young University (Marriott School of Management) | A+ |
| 5. Southern Methodist University (Cox School of Business) | A |
| 6. University of Texas-Austin (McCombs School of Business) | A |
| 7. University of Minnesota (Carlson School of Management) | A |
| 8. Texas Christian University (Neeley School of Business) | A |
| 9. Fordham University (Gabelli School of Business) | A |
| 10. Georgetown University (McDonough School of Business) | A |
| 11. Emory University (Goizueta School of Business) | A- |
| 12. Washington University (Olin School of Business) | A- |
| 13. Northeastern University (D’Amore-McKim School of Business) | A- |
| 14. University of Richmond (Robins School of Business) | A- |
| 15. University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign (College of Business) | A- |
| 16. Texas A&M University (Mays School of Business) | B+ |
| 17. Michigan State University (Broad College of Business) | B+ |
| 18. University of Pittsburgh (College of Business Administration) | B+ |
| 19. University of Massachusetts-Amherst (Isenberg School of Management) | B+ |
| 20. Wake Forest University (School of Business) | B+ |
| 21. James Madison University (College of Business) | B |
| 22. The College of New Jersey (College of Business) | B |
| 23. Purdue University (Krannert School of Management) | B |
| 24. University of Wisconsin (School of Business) | B |
| 25. Arizona State University (W. P. Carey School of Business) | B |
| 26. Boston University (Questrom School of Business) | B |
| 27. Elon University (Martha & Spencer Love School of Business) | B |
| 28. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper School of Business) | B |
Source: Poets&Quants 2016 undergraduate alumni survey
