The Ohio University College of Business landed at No. 72 in this year’s 2023 rankings, down a few places from last year’s No. 67 for the Class of 2022. The B-school had an acceptance rate of 87.45% for their most recent incoming class, very similar to last year’s 88.44% rate, and an average SAT score of 1175 for the incoming class – higher than last year’s 1143 average.
Employment-wise, Ohio University held steady, with an admirable rate of 89.70% of the Class of 2023 landing a business-focused job within three months of graduation compared to the slightly higher rate of 91.71% for the Class of 2022. Internship rates were at 72.80% for 2023 graduates, dropping from a 90% rate for their Class of 2022 graduates, which affected the B-School’s place in the rankings this year.
Based in Athens in the southwestern portion of the state, Ohio University’s BBA degree features 10 majors: accounting, business analytics, business economics, business pre-law, entrepreneurship, finance, international business, management and strategic leadership, management information systems, and marketing.
OU also offers a bachelor of science in business studies degree and a bachelor of sport management degree, both of which sit outside of the traditional BBA degree. Additionally, the college offers minors in business, business analytics, finance, marketing, and sport management. The college also offers 11 certificates, some of which are in some interesting and unique areas like esports, festivals and events management, and financial programming.
UNIQUE BUSINESS CLUSTER PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS EXPERIENCE
Regardless of major, the highlight of the business education experience at Ohio University is the Business Cluster. Students are placed in teams, professors from multiple disciplines come into the classroom, and then the student teams are assigned to solve different real-life business challenges.
“The Business Cluster is such a phenomenal program. An array of skills are required to succeed, all of which are directly applicable to the real-world,” one alum told us in an alumni survey. “Soft skills such as communication, critical thinking, organization, teamwork, and time management, as well as hard skills like data mining, financial analysis, marketing, and so much more. From a learning perspective, I can imagine no better way to encourage students to collaborate. Collaboration occurs not only amongst classmates but across classes themselves. Knowledge from all four courses must be applied, resulting in a well-rounded curriculum.”
STRONG ALUMNI SURVEY RESULTS
When asked on a one-to-10 scale how available business professors were for informal out of class meetings and mentoring, alumni gave an average of 9.08.
Ohio University offers an under-the-radar business education experience. Students in Ohio and in the region should consider the sleeper school as an option as it holds up against other more well-known business programs at Ohio State and the University of Cincinnati.
Alumni say:
“The Business Cluster program was worth the cost of admission alone. I entered the program with a limited idea of my capabilities and without a sense of where I stood and what I could achieve in the business world. After the program, I was fully confident in myself, my abilities as a business professional, as well as achieving a newfound desire to be successful in any endeavor I chose to focus my efforts on.”
“I took the financial planning track as I knew I wanted to be a Financial Planner, particularly a Certified Financial Planner. I was notified that I achieved a preliminary pass on the National CFP exam with my final results and diagnostics arriving in four weeks. I can’t say enough about Ohio University’s College of Business or about the CFP Certificate program in and of itself. Everyone from the professors to the faculty to the students were willing to collaborate and help each other to achieve their goals and that seems to be something that has come to be a standard at Ohio University as a whole.”
“I worked with real company stakeholders that provided business scenarios for us to provide them a service. I was in the Consumer Research and Analytics Center where we worked on real projects with corporate partners in my case Chase, Wendy’s and Kellogg’s, and we presented our findings at headquarters. Our classes are project-based more than exam based so we were consistently engaging in real-life business scenarios with corporate partners.”
“What makes OU’s business school unique is the ‘business cluster program’ where you are assigned a team of random business students. You and your team are consultants and are given various tasks and asked to present your findings multiple times throughout the semester to your clients (professors in the college). During this program I got to know one of my professors very well, Paul Benedict. He made himself available to my team, and after flunking our first presentation he gave us guidance that led us to be the top performing team by the end of the semester. To this day he is a mentor and friend and OU’s business cluster was my most memorable and favorite experience.”
“San Diego Consulting Project – a 3 week program working with students from Iowa and Dekan University (Australia) providing consulting services to various sports and entertainment organizations. This was an amazing experience that allowed me the opportunity to present to c-level executives. We also did a similar experience in Toronto with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, plus local experience with Ohio University Athletics – all of which were crucial to my development and advancing higher in the industry.”
