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News Release

Last modified: Friday, November 14, 2008

Kelley School's MBA program moves three positions in Business Week rankings to 15th

Program ranked fourth among publics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 14, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's Kelley School of Business has moved up again in another measure of quality, this time in Business Week's 2008 list of best business schools. Based on surveys of graduating students and corporate recruiters, the magazine ranked the school 15th overall, up from 18th two years ago. On that list, Kelley stands fourth among public institutions.

Already this year, the Kelley School's graduate program and its faculty have received considerable national attention. Recognition has included a top 20 ranking by U.S. News and World Report magazineand a Princeton Review survey giving top marks for Kelley faculty, facilities and overall classroom experience. The Financial Times ranked Kelley's marketing program No. 2 and its statistics program No. 7, both worldwide.

"We are certainly happy with our improvement in the most recent Business Week ranking," said Dan Smith, dean of the Kelley School. "Our internal metrics and benchmarking work indicate that our teaching quality, curriculum design, facilities, and career services support are absolutely among the best in the world.

"It is always nice to see the hard work and dedication of our faculty, staff and students result in an improvement in such a highly visible ranking." Smith added. "We are fortunate to have such an extraordinary team. I am confident that they will continue to push the envelope on innovation in program design and delivery. If we keep doing the right things to add value for our students and the companies that hire them, the rankings should continue to take care of themselves."

In addition to overall rankings, Business Week assigned letter grades for offerings in general management, analysis, teaching and careers. Students gave Kelley faculty -- who were called by the magazine "passionate and approachable" -- a grade of "A " for teaching, and recruiters likewise gave a nod to the school's career services office. The school received an A grade for analysis and a B for general management.

Business Week is one of the nation's oldest magazines dedicated to coverage of finance and industry. The rankings first were reported in a live Web chat late Thursday (Nov. 13), and the magazine will be available on newsstands today (Nov. 14).

The school's MBA program has been ranked consistently among Business Week's top 20 since the magazine first began ranking MBA programs in 1988. The Kelley School was previously ranked 20th in 2000 and 2002, and 18th in 2004 and 2006.

"While major media rankings cannot be ignored, we focus our attention and efforts on a network of internal metrics that is directly related to our core mission such as research impact, teaching effectiveness, program innovation, the quality of students we attract, degree of globalization and the range of career opportunities for our students among others," said Smith, placing the rankings in context. "There are over 3,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. that award business degrees. To be ranked among the top 15 schools places us high among the nation's elite 1 percent."

Every other year the magazine surveys graduates from 100 top business schools and recruiters from nearly 500 companies. Business Week also looks at the number of articles published by each school's faculty in 20 top academic journals. The student surveys count for 45 percent of the ranking, as does the recruiter survey. The remaining 10 percent take journal publications into account.

The school also was highlighed in an article about Millennial students.

"At Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, the marketing weapon of choice to reach Millennials is the current class. Once an individual is accepted, students with similar work histories and geographic backgrounds are asked to contact the accepted student to answer any questions they may have," the article said. "Dean Daniel C. Smith sees it as a way to give a big state school a small-school feel."

James Wahlen, chair of the MBA program, said the Business Week rankings are another validation of the school's emphasis on teaching, providing a responsive curriculum and professional development of students.

"We have really stepped up our ability to partner with corporate recruiters, in giving them access to this top tier talent that we have in our program," Wahlen added. "Our Graduate Career Services office also has helped our students to develop themselves professionally so that great employment opportunities are available to them, particularly in these crucial times.

"We continually have some of the best teaching in graduate business schools today," he added. "Corporate recruiters and students also are realizing that our teaching quality, innovative curriculum and the academy structure within our program are fabulous assets to help them transition and accelerate their careers to whatever they want to be doing after the program."

The Kelley MBA program ranked No. 1 among universities in the state and third in the Big Ten. The University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business was ranked 20th. Purdue University's Krannert School of Management was among those in the second tier outside of the top 30.

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