USC Makes U.S. News’ Top Ten Ranking

USC's Marshall School of Business

USC’s Marshall School of Business

For the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, 13 must be a lucky number.

In a sneak preview of its upcoming ranking of the best undergraduate business programs due out Sept. 9th, U.S. News today (Sept. 2) revealed that 13 business schools will be among its top ten. The magazine did not provide actual ranks for the schools but merely listed the top ten alphabetically. The 13th school to newly make the list is USC, which was in a 13th place tie last year with the undergraduate business programs at Emory University and Washington University.

All the remaining 12 schools are identical to the dozen who made the top ten in 2014. Last year, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School led the list, followed by a three-way tie among MIT, UC-Berkeley, and the University of Michigan. New York University’s Stern School and the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce both came in fifth. The Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill was seven, Carnegie Mellon University was eighth and then there was a three-way tie for tenth place, with Cornell, Indiana and Notre Dame all claiming that spot.

U.S. NEWS RANKING COULD ASSUME LARGER IMPORTANCE THIS YEAR WITH BUSINESSWEEK’S ABSENCE

Compared to U.S. News’ overall ranking for national universities, its undergraduate business program list is a stripped-down, no frills version based entirely on the magazine’s survey of business school deans and senior faculty, many of whom vote on the basis of a program’s reputation–not its true quality. Participants are asked to rate the quality of all programs they were familiar with on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). Last year, some 36 percent of those surveyed responded. The forthcoming results, U.S. News said, will be based on these peer assessment surveys conducted in spring 2014 and spring 2015.

The U.S. News ranking could well assume greater importance this year because Bloomberg Businessweek is not expected to publish a new undergraduate ranking. Businesslike suspended its ranking for a year to revamp its methodology and plans to return to the rankings space next year with a newly revised list.

DON’T MISS: 2014 U.S. NEWS’ RANKING OF THE BEST UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS PROGRAMS/