College Jumps 15 Places to #33 in U.S.News & World Report Ranking

The Mendoza College of Business made a huge leap forward in the annual U. S. News & World Report business school rankings. The MBA program shot to #33 this year from last year's #48 ranking. By climbing 15 spots, Mendoza is the only business school to make a double digit jump this year - the largest of any MBA program in the last four years.

The College made impressive gains across the board, improving in every category related to student profile and performance:

  • GMAT scores climbed to 659 from 639 in 2001, making Mendoza GMAT scores equal to or better than 12 schools with higher rankings.
  • Acceptance rate/selectivity (the number of students who applied vs. the number of students accepted) dropped to 29.4% from 43%, making Mendoza more selective than seven schools with higher rankings.
  • Average starting salary and bonuses rose nearly 6% over last year.
  • The grade point average (GPA) of incoming MBA students rose to 3.3 from 3.2 making Mendoza GPAs equal to or higher than nearly one-third of the top 25 schools in the ranking.
  • Career placement statistics improved an average of 10% since last year, with 77% employed at graduation and 96% employed three months later.

"I have always believed that the rankings do not reflect the excellence of our MBA program. But I am pleased with our improvement in the ranking," said Dean Carolyn Woo. "Though we have moved up a lot, I believe we are still under-ranked. This is not where we will stop, but it puts us in 'launching position' to move into the twenties and then further up."

"I would like to emphasize, however, that our efforts here at the College are not about rankings per se," said Woo. "The University of Notre Dame and the Mendoza College stand for a very important message - one that integrates success with responsibility, intelligence with compassion and individual achievement with caring about the Mendoza College community, the South Bend community and the world around us. It is a message few business schools embrace and even fewer can deliver." Woo went on to say that the College's higher ranking "gives us more credibility with which to carry this message."