BusinessWeek ranks UW undergraduate business 8th among public institutions

BusinessWeek has ranked the UW Business School’s Undergraduate Program 25th nationally, eighth among public institutions, and fourth overall for return on investment.

“We owe much of this strong showing to our committed faculty, our rigorous curriculum and the ability of our students to get terrific jobs immediately upon graduation," said Pete Dukes, associate dean for undergraduate programs and professor of accounting at the UW Business School. "And clearly, our students had positive things to say about their experiences in our program, and their opinions mattered to BusinessWeek."

According to the magazine’s “Best Undergraduate Business Schools" ranking, the UW scored especially high with students for its focus on international business, an exceptional accounting program, and a dedicated faculty.

To select top programs, BusinessWeek used five measures, including a survey of nearly 80,000 business majors at top schools and a poll of undergraduate recruiters. The ranking is based on the “index number," which represents the sum of all five ranking measures. The magazine also calculated letter grades on teaching quality, facilities and services, and job placement based on the student survey.

In the “return on investment" category, BusinessWeek reported that the UW Business School undergrad class of 2006 earned a median starting salary of $47,500, or $7.94 of salary per tuition dollar. North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business was the only higher ranking school that delivered a greater bang for the buck. By comparison, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the top ranked business program in the nation, posted $1.76 of mean starting salary per tuition dollar.