The Palumbo-Donahue School of Business at Duquesne University finished No. 65 on P&Q’s 2025 ranking of the Best Undergraduate Business Programs in the U.S. In our three methodological categories, it finished No. 85 in Admission Standards, No. 58 in Career Outcomes, and No. 59 in Academic Experience (based solely on our alumni survey).
The B-school’s acceptance rate for the fall 2024 incoming class was 88%, and the class reported an average SAT score of 1234. Its six-year graduation rate is 77%.
In career data, 90% of Class of 2023 and 2024 graduates completed at least one business-specific internship before graduation. Some 87.4% of 2024 grads found jobs within three months, compared to 91.5% of 2023 grads.
The average salary for the most recent graduates was $62,502.76, with 9% of them reporting an average signing bonus of $2,683.33. The top employers included BNY Mellon, Wesco, EY, Duquesne University, PLS Logistics Services, PNC Financial Services, Insight Global, ADP, Amazon, Ansys, Deloitte, Federated Hermes, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Key Bank, PwC, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
Duquesne’s tight-knit community and highly relevant education ultimately make the B-school a strong contender for any student looking for a comprehensive undergraduate business degree.
SMALL COMMUNITY, BIG CITY
The Palumbo-Donahue School of Business at Duquesne University offers a “cornerstone to capstone” approach, ensuring that students gain real-world experience throughout their education. First-year students begin with the First-Year Innovation Experience, a hands-on project where they work in teams for an external client. This emphasis on practical application continues through the curriculum, culminating in the Strategic Management capstone course, where seniors tackle real-world business challenges for another external client.
The undergraduate business curriculum blends traditional business disciplines with “boundary-spanning” courses, emphasizing skills that extend beyond the classroom. Entrepreneurship students benefit from seed funding to launch their own businesses, while finance students manage donor-funded Student Managed Investment Funds (SMIFs). The school also prioritizes success skills such as cultural intelligence, sustainability, influence skills, and entrepreneurial thinking, ensuring graduates enter the workforce well-rounded and career-ready.
RECENT INNOVATIONS
Duquesne has recently expanded its data and technology-focused programs to prepare students for the evolving business landscape. The school introduced a Business Analytics co-major, designed to integrate with any business major, equipping students with data-driven decision-making skills. The Information Systems and Technology major was reimagined with dual tracks, allowing students to specialize in business applications and systems, data analytics, or both.
Finance students now have access to multiple Student Managed Investment Funds (SMIFs), including a values-based fund, which follows “Investing for the Greater Good” principles. The Business Math course, which integrates Algebra and Calculus, is now taught within the business school, ensuring that students build strong analytical foundations within a business context.
Palumbo-Donahue students can choose from majors in Accounting, Business Analytics, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Information Systems & Technology, Management, Marketing, and Supply Chain Management.
ALUMNI SAY
“I had multiple opportunities for project work. We had an experiential learning course freshman year as well as two capstone courses senior year – one called Strategic Management which was a consulting project with business students from all areas of study, and one called IS Capstone for Information Systems majors specifically. The IS Capstone course was especially meaningful to me because it brought together all aspects of the software development lifecycle. We had learned pieces of it from our various classes, but the capstone allowed us to take a project all the way through as if it were a real world project.”
“It gave me very practical experience regarding the things I would see in a real job environment. It was probably the most applicable information I learned regarding business/technology. It was also super helpful because it encouraged teamwork, which is a big part of my current job.”
“First Year Innovation project really helped us as freshmen to acknowledge how the real business works, take into account all industries within the business world and show us how to be resourceful and innovative when coming up with business ideas and what to take into consideration. I believe this experience shaped what specialty I wanted to study in business and give us a real life experience as we enter college as to what to expect with people in the industry and learning how to work with others.”
“I studied abroad in Dublin, Ireland. It was amazing everything about it. I love the culture, food, people, just everything. Seeing how they do classes there especially for the business side was helpful. It widens your knowledge and understanding of global business and how it’s different in each country.”
“Amazing professors who go out of their way to make sure students will succeed.”
“My education at Duquense University is something I always brag about to friends and family, and this is primarily due to the insane quality of the professors teaching there. I cannot say I ever had an instructor who I didn’t get excited to learn from, every semester, every year. The curricula matches suit, exposing us to many different technologies and methods of how the real world work is conducted.”
