Y. business school ranks 8th in BusinessWeek poll

PROVO — Brigham Young University has a Top 10 business school for undergraduates, according to new rankings from BusinessWeek magazine.

BYU is ranked eighth this year, the same as it was last year when the magazine began to determine "The Best Undergrad B-Schools."

"We're really excited. We're in among some great schools," said Joan Young, director of BYU's undergraduate management program. "You look down the list and it's outstanding."

The University of Pennsylvania ranked first for the second straight year, followed by the University of Virginia. UC-Berkeley debuted in the Top 10 at No. 3, followed by Emory, Michigan-Ann Arbor, MIT, Notre Dame, BYU, NYU and Cornell.

Texas-Arlington (13th) and Indiana-Bloomington (18th) dropped out of the Top 10.

BusinessWeek used five measures — a survey of 80,000 business majors, a poll of recruiters, teaching quality, job placement and facilities and services.

BYU has ranked No. 1 and No. 2 among recruiters the past two years.

"They like our students, and our students are going out to really great jobs," Young said.

BYU also ranked first for return on investment among private schools.

"Our tuition is much, much lower so the students go out with good salaries and get a really good return on what they spend at BYU," Young said.

Even among public schools, which generally are cheaper, BYU would rank second.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints subsidizes tuition at BYU, where annual undergraduate tuition for church members costs $3,260. Others pay $6,520.

The Marriott School of Management has 1,640 undergraduate students.

The middle 80 percent of SAT scores for those accepted to the undergraduate program are between 1140 and 1310, according to BusinessWeek. The same range of ACT scores are between 24 and 29.

The complete rankings are available in the March 19 issue of BusinessWeek, which went on sale Friday.

Expanded information, including average class sizes and comments from BYU students in the program, is available online at www.businessweek.com/bschools/undergraduate.

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