Saunders College listed in business school ranking

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A. Sue Weisler

Saunders College of Business is recognized in the top 100 programs listed in the Best Undergraduate Business Schools 2014 rankings by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology is recognized in the top 100 programs listed in the Best Undergraduate Business Schools 2014 rankings by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Since 1988, Businessweek has published annual rankings of U.S. business school MBA programs, and in 2006, it also started publishing annual rankings of undergraduate business programs.

“I am delighted our ranking has gone from 93 to 91; it highlights our strengths in developing students,” said dt ogilvie, dean of Saunders College. “Helping them gain real-world experience through one of the oldest and largest cooperative education programs in the world allows Saunders graduates to excel among their peers on Day 1, at the start of their careers.”

Another strength in the Saunders program is that average class sizes are much lower than other business schools.

“Add to that the accessibility of our faculty members and the small-school attention our students receive while benefiting from being at a large university—which includes elective courses in one of the top student incubators in the country at RIT’s Simone Center for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The Bloomberg Businessweek ranking is one more indicator that we are successfully implementing our plan.”

The Saunders undergraduate program has minors in nine business disciplines: accounting, business administration, digital business, entrepreneurship, finance, international business, management, management information systems and marketing. A co-op is required of all business students in their junior and senior year, and students are also encouraged to study abroad as part of their educational experience.

“We are honored that Saunders College is being recognized on a national level,” said RIT President Bill Destler. “The business school is an integral part of our university and has helped RIT become one of the top entrepreneurship programs in the country.”

Notably, Saunders undergraduates have a 97.5 percent placement rate—six months after graduation for May 2012 graduates. In addition to a strong career and co-op program, students have opportunities to differentiate themselves in the job market through a strong minors program at RIT. This program allows students to get a minor in technical, arts, or design disciplines from other RIT colleges that are among the top in the nation, such as gaming and industrial design.

This new listing comes on the heels of Bloomberg Businessweek Best Undergraduate Business Schools by Specialty 2013—released last summer where Saunders was ranked nationally in the following areas: No.14 management information systems, No. 21 entrepreneurship, No. 26 marketing, No. 32 corporate strategy and No. 52 international business.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, 132 undergraduate schools participated in the 2014 rankings—with surveyed responses from more than 28,000 students who answered 44 questions about teaching quality, access to faculty, school facilities, career services and more. The survey also collected responses from 300 employers who have recruited or attempted to recruit business undergraduates in the last five years.

Note: One of nine colleges at RIT, Saunders College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB International) and enrolls more than 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students. Saunders College and its entrepreneurial Venture Creations Incubator work in partnership with RIT’s Albert J. Simone Center for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship to integrate business education with RIT’s world leading technical and creative programs. Graduate programs include Master of Business Administration, MBA-Accounting, Executive MBA and master’s degrees in finance and administration.