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NIU Business ranks among the very best … again

January 7, 2019

The NIU College of Business continues to be ranked among an exclusive group of the best undergraduate business schools in the country.  The latest ranking results come from Poets&Quants,the leading online publication for undergraduate business education news.  In its third annual ranking, the publication ranks NIU’s business college in the top 100 (80th) within a prestigious group of schools. Collectively, these schools represent the top 16% of accredited undergraduate programs in the U.S.

For the second year running, the business colleges at Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign were the only two Illinois schools to make the ranking.

“This was the most competitive ranking that we have seen since the launch of the ranking three years ago,” said Nathan Allen, the publication’s project manager.

Poets&Quants for Undergrads compiled its 2018 rankings based on a survey of alumni from across the candidate schools and school-reported data.

NIU Business alumni gave the college high marks across the board, with letter grades in the A and B ranges, exclusively. Areas earning grades in the A range include:

  • the likelihood of alumni recommending the college to a close friend or colleague;
  • accessibility of and engagement with business faculty outside of class;
  • opportunities beyond class for students to nurture and improve business skills, and;
  • the strength of the NIU business degree in terms of providing a new socioeconomic status to the degree holder.

“This ranking is a reaffirmation of the strong reputation for the college. Our college has built a national reputation for its programs based on creating experiences that cross boundaries. A primary example is our focus on active learning, which allows our students to cross from theory to practice and our courses to cross disciplinary boundaries. Through these experiences, our students literally live it, learn it, and do it,” said Balaji Rajagopalan, dean of the NIU College of Business. “Building on this legacy, we commit ourselves to building a culture of innovation to experiment with new ideas that will help us stay at the cutting edge and have a transformative impact on student success.”

Developed in collaboration with business school deans and administrators, Poets&Quants for Undergrads’ ranking methodology is based equally on admission standards, academic experience, and career outcomes. No other ranking or school survey asks for the same amount of concrete data, ranging from the percent of National Merit Scholars at each business school, to the percentage of students with global experience while at the school, to average debt upon graduation.

The NIU College of Business first earned AACSB International accreditation — the world’s highest standard of excellence for global business education — in 1969, just eight years after its founding. The college is one of few to enjoy a national ranking for 32 consecutive years based on the annual U.S. News & World Report ranking of best business colleges.

More recently, this top undergraduate business program ranking of 80 from Poets&Quants and a top 100 ranking from U.S. News & World Report of the part-time MBA program puts NIU in an elite category. NIU Business alumni number more than 60,000 — many holding C-suite executive positions in companies of all sizes — located in the Chicago metropolitan area and around the world.

For more on the 2018 Poets&Quants ranking, visit: http://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2018/12/12