Marshall falls in rankings, but No. 1 in student satisfaction
Posted September 21, 2009 at 11:00 pm in News
Though it achieved a No. 1 ranking in undergraduate satisfaction, USCâs Marshall School of Business fell four spots to No. 21 in BusinessWeekâs annual undergraduate business school rankings announced last week.
The rankings were compiled by the magazine along with College Prowler, a website that uses a formulaic methodology as well as student input to grade quantitative and qualitative aspects of American universities.
âWe look at things across the board such as faculty to student ratio, overall academics, how many parking spaces there are, etc.,â said Luke Skurman, CEO of College Prowler. âAnd then thereâs the qualitative side, where we ask students for their input on these various aspects of campus life.â
According to BusinessWeekâs evaluation of its rankings, USC achieved its position in the undergraduate satisfaction list based on its favorable location, âtop-notchâ career facilities and the supportive alumni network, which it described as âa valuable commodity, especially in light of the current job market.â
BusinessWeek also cited the faculty as being one of Marshallâs greatest strengths.
Abby Chao, a freshman majoring in business administration, said she agreed with the magazineâs evaluation of the school.
âIâm only a freshman, but I know that Marshall has a lot of great programs, and they ensure that you donât get âlostâ even though itâs the largest [professional] school at USC,â she said.
William Crookston, a professor of entrepreneurial studies, said he was also enthusiastic about the rankings.
âItâs terrific â Iâm not excited about being 21st overall, but having a positive student satisfaction is great, and I believe it,â he said.
Having graduated from Marshall himself with a bachelorâs and a masterâs in 1967 and 1974, respectively, Crookston was able to compare Marshallâs present goals and achievements with those from his time at USC.
âAt that time, there was no need to compete nationally; we dominated the West Coast region in
undergraduate education at Marshall,â Crookston said. âNow weâve got pretty strict competitors, but the overall goal of Marshall is the same as it was when I was here.â
Crookston also said the school could still improve its overall performance in rankings by turning some of the primary focus from masterâs candidates to the
undergraduate students.
âItâs important to keep the students, or âproducts,â happy,â Crookston said. âThough we canât just let them slide through â it has to be rigorous. However, we must apparently be doing something right. Number one in student satisfaction is terrific.â
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LA Downtown, CA
Let’s run a regression to see how much R-squared explains this ranking.