The Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University finished No. 77 on P&Q’s 2025 ranking of the Best Undergraduate Business Programs in the U.S. In our three methodological categories, it finished No. 87 in Admission Standards, No. 61 in Career Outcomes, and No. 87 in Academic Experience (based solely on our alumni survey).
The B-school’s acceptance rate for the fall 2024 incoming class was 80.3%, and the class also reported an average SAT score of 1246. Its six-year graduation rate is 74.1%.
In career data, 80% of Class of 2024 graduates and 64% of Class of 2023 grads completed at least one business-specific internship before graduation. Some 94.3% of 2024 grads found jobs within three months, compared to 91.4% of 2023 grads.
Average salary for the most recent graduates was $71,437. The top employers included Deloitte, Amazon, Bank of America, JPMorgan, KPMG, PACCAR, EY, Goldman Sachs, Nordstrom, and Starbucks.
The Albers undergraduate program is best characterized by its ethics-focused curriculum, real-world learning component, and strong study-abroad opportunities — all of which equip students with a strong and unique outlook on the business world and beyond.
ETHICS-FOCUSED, LIBERAL ARTS CURRICULUM
Seattle’s Albers School of Business offers two Bachelor of Arts degree programs in either Business Administration or Economics. Students in the Business Administration program can choose to major in Accounting, Marketing, Finance, Management, Business Analytics, Business And Law, Business Economics, or International Business.
The core curriculum is a foundational set of 12 liberal arts courses that are distributed over four key learning objectives: “Engaging Academic Inquiry,” “Engaging Jesuit Traditions,” “Engaging the World,” and “Reflection.” The core curriculum encourages students to think critically about their place in the world with a focus on themes such as community and ethics. As a Jesuit university, Seattle University places an important emphasis on the values of ethical and responsible leadership and its core curriculum reflects that. Some core classes include Philosophy of the Human Person, Ethical Reasoning, and Humanities and Global Challenges.
An important distinction of the core curriculum at Seattle is how expansive it is compared to core curricula at other universities. Seattle students typically spend freshman through junior year completing the fundamental courses, as opposed to just two years. In turn, however, Albers students are given a strong foundation in the liberal arts and a comprehensive understanding of important values to lead ethically and responsibly.
REAL-WORLD LEARNING COMPONENT
Many of the business courses at Albers feature a real-world learning component. Surveyed alumni highlighted a variety of key “signature experiences” that were integral to their business learning — from unique capstone projects to case study-based courses.
“I engaged in a thorough business plan review of a local brewery for my capstone project,” one alumni told us. “The coordination efforts and hands-on experience of working with multiple contacts in a successful business helped prepare me well for the communication and coordination skills I needed to quickly become a top associate at my firm.”
“There was one core class that did not have any exam for the whole quarter,” another alumni said. “There were only discussions and presentations for case studies every week. I think it was very unique since I could exchange ideas with my classmates on how to solve problems in the real world.”
What ties the variety of courses together at Albers is the real-world learning component. Projects encourage students to apply their knowledge in real-world situations. Courses emphasize critical thinking and team problem solving over multiple choice exams. In turn, students are given valuable soft skills that can be referenced when it comes time to interview for internships and jobs. Alumni also rated the opportunities given to them at Albers to nurture and improve their soft skills with a strong 8.48 average rating.
STUDY ABROAD OPPORTUNITIES
Albers students have a number of study abroad opportunities. They can choose to participate in either the Study Tour Courses, two-week in-country classes, or the Education Abroad Programs, which are generally longer. Destinations range all over the globe from Madrid and Paris to Beijing and Tokyo.
One of the more popular programs is the two-week Study Tour of the European Union, where students travel to the cities of Madrid, Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Students explore European business culture and corporate governance and visit a variety of institutions and companies.
“For my international business course, I went on a trip to the EU where we studied corporate governance and met with the big four accounting firms abroad and met with regulatory groups within the EU,” one alumni reported. “This class had a profound impact on my understanding of business principles and being able to see the consecutiveness of our global economy.”
With its strong liberal arts foundation, Albers empowers students to think critically about their place in the world. Its curriculum emphasizes ethical values and critical thinking with a real-world learning component. In turn, students are well-prepared to set out into the world as socially responsible business leaders.
ALUMNI SAY
“Working with a team of students for an objective of a real business really allowed us a perspective of what business communication, expectation, work pace, and management is different to that of the class. These experiences were important to giving me the perspective and expectations I needed in order to do my best in the real world.”
“I believe the cornerstone of my educational experience at Seattle University was my time as an analyst with the school’s endowment fund, The Redhawk Fund. Being able to stretch the soft skills with pitches and presentations and utilizing the financial analysis and research skills taught in the classroom makes the analyst experience incredibly valuable to any aspiring finance professional.”
“Engaged in a data science project, using machine learning methods, to detect factors (socioeconomic, demographic, et al.) potentially responsible for increased levels of Covid-19 infection.”
“Albers is exceptional at providing professors with real life experiences and connections. The quality of the faculty is incredible. Joseph Barnes, Mathew Isaac, and Jennifer Hong were the highlights of the marketing department.”
“I loved SU’s Albers School of Business & Economics and I’m a very proud alum.”
