The College of Business at the University of Michigan-Dearborn finished No. 90 on P&Q’s 2025 ranking of the Best Undergraduate Business Programs in the U.S. In our three methodological categories, it finished No. 86 in Admission Standards, No. 88 in Career Outcomes, and No. 89 in Academic Experience (based solely on our alumni survey).
The B-school’s acceptance rate for the fall 2024 incoming class was 56.0%, and the class also reported an average SAT score of 1063. Its six-year graduation rate is 65.0%.
In career data, 54% of Class of 2024 graduates and 64% of Class of 2023 grads completed at least one business-specific internship before graduation. Some 86.2% of 2024 grads found jobs within three months, compared to 87.1% of 2023 grads.
Average salary for the most recent graduates was $60,333, with 4% of them reporting an average signing bonus of $4,000. The top employers included Amazon, University of Michigan, Plante Moran, Rocket Financial, United Wholesale Mortgage, Whipfly, Mahle, Ally, and Deloitte.
The Michigan-Dearborn undergraduate business experience is best described as one with strong faculty support and a variety of unique experiential learning opportunities.
“We believe in the power of practice-based learning and transformative experiences. With our top-notch faculty leading the way, our students dive into collaborative projects that tackle real-world challenges and earn certifications in cutting-edge fields. Our commitment to excellence means that all students leave here ready to make a meaningful impact in their careers and communities,” the schools says.
DEARBORN CURRICULUM
Michigan-Dearborn business undergraduates start in the business schools as freshman. They can select from a variety of majors including Accounting, Digital Marketing, Finance, General Business, Human Resource Management, Small Business Management, Marketing, Information Systems Management, and Supply Chain Management.
In fall 2025, the school is launching new majors and minors in Business Analytics.
The B-school’s Digital Marketing program is especially unique as it dives into social media marketing, email marketing, and mobile strategies used in marketing campaigns — offering a more tactical and in-depth education than a traditional marketing program.
“The digital marketing program is world-class for sure,” one alumni told us. “Had so many people that were high up in digital marketing do a lot of talks during class and after class too.”
The BBA curriculum is structured around both the Dearborn Discovery Core (the university’s general education curriculum), the BBA core (business core courses), and major requirements. The Dearborn Discovery Core includes a variety of liberal arts topics including courses in humanities and critical and creative thinking. The BBA core offers a strong foundation in all aspects of business from economics to corporate finance.
STRONG FACULTY SUPPORT
Faculty support is one of the main selling points behind the Michigan-Dearborn business education. An overwhelming number of alumni that we surveyed spoke highly about the mentorship and guidance that Michigan-Dearborn business professors provided.
“The professors were professionals who cared about learning rather than forcing information,” one alumni said. “I saw this across the board: the professors cared.”
Surveyed alumni scored faculty a 8.26 out of 10 in terms of their availability for informal discussions and mentoring outside of classes.
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
One of the biggest strengths of the Michigan-Dearborn undergraduate business program is how relevant the education is. Students have a number of opportunities to engage in experiential learning and gain real-world skills. Whether through relevant course topics or experiential capstone projects, Michigan-Dearborn students are challenged to apply their knowledge to the real world.
“Doing business in Detroit course-related projects and learning about the unique business climate in the city at a time that it was rebuilding itself,” one alumni told us.
“The capstone project involved taking learning from every single part of our time at the school and bringing it all together,” another alumni said. “We ran a simulation of a car manufacturer throughout the whole semester, competing against other manufacturers (students) in the class. You had complete control over everything; pricing, R&D, release cycles, vehicle types, market research.”
Outside of the classroom, Michigan-Dearborn students also have a variety of opportunities to engage in real-world learning. Students can partake in a number of consulting projects where student teams coordinate with clients on projects of up to 15 weeks to address a real need or issue within an organization. Students work with stakeholders throughout the term and conclude with a final deliverable. Consulting project topics range from general consulting to supply chain logistics and business analytics.
Students can also take part in project-based internships, which allow them to work for organizations that don’t necessarily need a full-time intern but seek support for smaller projects or initiatives. Project-based interns work part-time on specific projects from website building to social media plans.
Both in and out of the classroom, Michigan-Dearborn students are given an abundance of unique opportunities to actively engage in real-world learning. Add to that a strong sense of faculty support and guidance and you have a solid foundation for a successful career.
ALUMNI SAY
“I have done several large projects that have helped me learn many different business techniques particularly for market research and project management. These were very beneficial as they helped to give an idea of how I would do such research in industry.”
“I was part of Summer undergraduate research program at college of business assisting professors Wayne fu and Hung Chung su in research related to supply chain finance and how can it solve the problem on cash crunch in industry. The experience was great specially I got to learn and use Bloomberg market terminal for research.”
“I was part of the American Marketing Association at U of M Dearborn. This experience helped me connect with industry professionals, foster thought leadership with my peers, and created an opportunity to compete nationally at the ICC conference.”
“My capstone project experience came after learning all technical business concepts and zoomed back out to apply the early and more general business concepts we learned. This helped tie everything together and review our early curriculum with a much more knowledgeable perspective. This was very beneficial toward my career in business strategy.”
“The COB at University of Michigan-Dearborn truly made me feel prepared for entering the job market. For my career, having a class that was centered around using SAP to perform multiple functions in the supply chain was incredibly valuable. I will definitely be returning to earn my MBA.”
