Rutgers Business School in Newark, New Jersey landed at No. 75 in this year’s rankings — falling six spots from last year. Rutgers saw a slightly less selective admissions process this year with an acceptance rate of 74.99%, up from last year’s acceptance rate of 68%. The average SAT score for last fall’s incoming class remained unchanged at 1120.
Despite falling behind in this year’s rankings, Rutgers managed to see modest improvement in internship outcomes with 61% of its Class of 2020 landing a business-focused internship before graduating — up from last year’s 56%. Employment outcomes seemed unaffected by the COVID-19 economic downturn as well, with 83.54% of the Class of 2020 securing full-time employment at the time of graduation — in line with last year’s 83.72%. Those results led RBS Newark to finish 63rd in the employment outcomes methodological category, its strongest finish of the three methodological areas.
The undergraduate experience at Rutgers Business School is best characterized by its relevant curriculum, diverse student community, and hands-on learning.
RELEVANT CURRICULUM
Rutgers undergraduates can choose from six different majors including Accounting, Finance, Financial Management and Capital Markets, Financial Planning, Real Estate, Leadership & Management, Management Information Systems, Marketing, and Supply Chain Management.
The B-school is consistently making updates to keep its curriculum state of the art. This past Fall, the accounting department created a new degree requiring Auditing Analytics.
“This new course helps prepare students by teaching skills that are needed and used in today’s Accounting world,” Jenny Roberts, manager of Academic Programs at Rutgers Business School, Newark & New Brunswick, told us. “The purpose of this change was to ensure students continue to receive a top-notch educational experience that encompasses the skills and knowledge that is sought by employers.”
Additionally, within the past three years, Rutgers has added a number of concentrations to its portfolio offering to allow students to add specializations without needing to double major. As of Fall 2020, students have eight potential concentrations including Business of Fashion, Entrepreneurship, Global Business, Leadership Skills, Management Science and Information Systems, Real Estate, Sales, and Supply Chain Management.
DIVERSE STUDENT COMMUNITY
At the core of Rutgers is its people. The B-school boasts one of the most diverse student body populations in the nation. Some 30% of its incoming Fall of 2020 students are first-generation college students. And 41% of the incoming class are underrepresented minorities. To put those numbers into perspective, at an Ivy League school, like Wharton, only 12% of the incoming class are first-generation college students. At NYU Stern, only 23% of the incoming class are underrepresented minorities.
Diversity has become a major initiative in the U.S. as many companies and organizations increasingly face scrutiny for the lack of minorities in leadership positions. At Rutgers, the diverse student community is critical to the educational environment. Students, often from different backgrounds, exchange ideas, collaborate on solutions, and develop into future leaders.
“RBS-Newark undergraduate students are ambitious and talented. They are the business leaders of tomorrow. Many go on to graduate school, start companies, and hold executive positions in major corporations,” Roberts told us. “With almost every country in the world and ethnic background represented at Rutgers University – Newark, students learn as much from each other as they do in the classroom.”
HANDS-ON LEARNING
The Rutgers education places heavy emphasis on hands-on learning and offers students a realistic understanding of business. Many classes feature a component of real client work and students are challenged to apply their business knowledge. Surveyed 2018 alumni all spoke to the real-world applications of course content, which often emphasized hands-on learning over theoretical.
“[I] took a course called Industry Client Project where we all had different clients and worked on projects during the semester,” one 2018 alum told us. “I had the opportunity to have Panasonic as my client and I worked with the stakeholder weekly to make sure their needs were being met, which prepared me for the consulting career.”
“One of the projects of our marketing research analysis class was to evaluate a real company using market research and SWOT analysis and provide a plan of action that can be implemented to produce results,” another 2018 alum said. “I think this was one of the best exercises I did in my whole undergraduate career.”
Unlike at many B-schools, where hands-on learning is often reserved for the senior capstone course, hands-on learning at Rutgers is integrated throughout the curriculum to give students a strong foundation of real-world business experience by the time they graduate.
Overall, what makes the Rutgers Business School unique is the investment it places in its people. With one of the most diverse student populations in the nation, a relevant curriculum, and hands-on learning, the B-school creates a skilled, multicultural talent pipeline for tomorrow’s world of business.
Alumni say:
“The program was very realistic to the real world. It was a great experience working with a real company and witnessing real problems that companies occur. Doing the research and coming up with different solutions was a great exercise for me for the future.”
“The entire aspect of taking a successful company and theorizing ways it could run into potential issues in the future while brainstorming with a group of classmates. This almost felt like a true real-world consulting-like experience.”
“True support from the department and they allowed us to have lots of leadership experiences.”
Top Employers for the Class of 2020:
JPMorgan Chase: 16
Deloitte: 15
Prudential: 12
EY: 11
Amazon: 8
PwC: 7
Accenture: 4
DHL: 4
KPMG: 4
