NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ The Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University soared among programs its size in today’s ranking of top business schools reported in The Wall Street Journal. The school placed No. 2 in North America among regional schools, those the paper says "tend to be smaller."
The ranking, conducted by The Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive, is based on a survey of 2,849 corporate recruiters, those people who, as the "buyers of M.B.A. talent," best know the schools and their graduates.
The Owen School was praised for producing graduates ready for the workforce ñ ones who fit into the corporate culture, work well as part of a team and bring with them strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
"The survey of recruiters points to how much Vanderbilt MBAs are valued by the companies that know them best," said Acting Dean Jim Bradford. "It is further validation that Vanderbilt’s MBA program is truly among the very elite group of graduate business programs. We are quite proud of our overall placement in these rankings and of the graduates our program is placing in corporations in the United States and throughout the world."
The Owen School placed ahead of other top business schools also in the regional classification ñ Ohio State, Michigan State, the University of Southern California, Rice, Notre Dame, Babson College and Georgetown.
Said one recruiter, "Vanderbilt graduates have demonstrated strategic agility and ability to see the big picture. They also show a strong passion for the job."
Recruiters were allowed to rank a business school only if they had recent recruiting experience there.
Students were ranked on 20 key attributes, and the ranking this year was divided into three broad categories: national schools, or those with larger programs that attract primarily national or multinational recruiters; regional schools, the smaller programs that "attract many recruiters from their local regions"; and international schools, those that "attract a global mix of recruiters from a variety of countries."
The Wall Street Journal explained that it divided its former one-size-fits-all ranking into three categories this year to avoid its being a reflection only of the size of the schools. This way, the paper says, it can focus more on "recruiters’ feelings about the school and its students."
Last year, when the ranking didn’t differentiate schools into these three categories, the Owen School was ranked No. 15, up from 26th place in 2002.
More information about the Owen Graduate School of Management can be found at www.owen.vanderbilt.edu. For more information about Vanderbilt, visit the News Service homepage at www.vanderbilt.edu/News.
Media contact: Susanne Hicks, (615) 322-NEWS
susanne.hicks@vanderbilt.edu