Some business program administrators play what educators call the ranking game. They look at the numbers. They study the statistics. And then they do whatever it takes to get their program’s national rank up.

But administrators at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management prefer to use their national rank as only one piece of a larger picture – the quality of education their students are receiving.

‘We all want to have good rankings,’ said Clint Tankersley, associate dean of undergraduate programs at Whitman. ‘And if you figure out what you want to do on a larger scale and get that right, then the good rankings will follow.’

Whitman’s rank fell to No. 61 this year in Bloomberg Businessweek’s national ranking of the best undergraduate business programs, compared to its previous rank of No. 47 in 2011 and 2010. In 2006, the school was No. 42 among other business programs across the country. Though the drop was alarming to Whitman, faculty and students remain confident in the program, and they are already beginning to work toward improving the ranking.

When identifying the top undergraduate business programs, Bloomberg Businessweek uses a system that includes nine measures of student satisfaction, post-graduation aftereffects and overall academic quality, said Geoff Gloeckler, staff editor at Businessweek.

The first two pieces of data consist of a survey of senior business students as well as employers hiring business students. Businessweek asked more than 86,000 graduating seniors across the country to complete a 50-question survey on everything from the quality of teaching to recreational facilities. The survey received 28,060 students’ responses, Gloeckler said.

Another survey polled 749 corporate employers who hire thousands of business majors each year. They were asked to convey which programs turn out the best graduates and have the most effective curriculum for career services. Of those polled, 257 employers responded, he said.

Additionally, Businessweek looks at various data points collected, incoming students’ SAT scores, class sizes and faculty student ratio, Gloeckler said. Other factors include the salaries of graduating students and how much time they spend on work outside of the classroom.

With this system, it is not uncommon for business programs to fluctuate in their rank from year to year, Gloeckler said.

‘At the top of the ranking we don’t see a lot of movement or any huge jumps,’ he said. ‘But lower down schools can jump 10 to 20 places because they are grouped together so closely that one school’s slight change will push it up or down a lot.’

These slight numeric differences may have played a role in Whitman’s drop, said Tankersley, the dean of undergraduate admissions. Only 61 schools were ranked when the rankings began in 2006. This year, 124 schools were ranked. As more schools are added, there are fewer numerical differences between schools.

For example, Whitman’s student-faculty ratio is 23:1, as it was last year. Because other schools have the same ratio, had the ratio dropped to 22:1, Whitman’s rank could have sprung up several places. If students reported they studied one hour extra a week, the program could have moved up, Tankersley said. Additionally, Whitman’s average class size has a few more students than other peer schools.

Another contributing factor to the drop in ranking could be the response rate to the survey from Whitman’s seniors, which was only 45 percent, Tankersley said, meaning more than half of them did not reply.

The survey asks students to rate areas of the program on an A, B, C, D scale, with A being the highest. Of the students who responded, Whitman’s facilities, consisting of the school itself as well as dining and residence halls, were graded with a B, Tankersley said. And though teaching usually receives an A rating, it was rated a B this year.

To be among the top 50, programs should have an A in teaching, said Melvin Stith, dean of Whitman.

‘Did something unique happen this year? Something that caused students to think our teaching had changed?’ he said. ‘We need to figure this out, so we’re meeting with the student leaders. We used to always get A’s.’

The survey is frustrating, however, because Whitman’s administrators and faculty are not released the specific questions or topics of the survey, so the surveys are outside of the realm of what can be controlled.

Stith said he personally is not in favor of the Businessweek rankings due to the rating system, which takes in the overall campus life of the university and asks questions about aspects such as life, town, food and the weather.

Whitman has generally been ranked higher in U.S. News and World Report rankings, which focus more on the reputation of the university, and therefore, have less fluctuation in the placement of the programs. The Whitman school has consistently been ranked in the 40s in the past few years.

‘Our undergraduate business programs based on reputation or pure assessment, we survey business school and heads of undergraduate business programs to get their opinions on the schools,’ said Bob Morse, director of data research at U.S. News and World Report. ‘It’s based on reputation surveys, not statistical data.’

And although Whitman’s rank is consistent in U.S. News and World Report, Whitman administrators and faculty are constantly working toward improvement and have taken the Businessweek ranking seriously.

‘It’s a little puzzling to me and the other deans. Did we miss something that students were trying to verbalize?’ Stith said. ‘But we respond pretty rapidly – we say students first.’

Stith plans to bring the Educational Benchmarking group to Whitman to survey seniors as well as juniors to see their opinion of how well administrators and faculty are doing and how well services are being delivered. He additionally plans to work with the incoming freshman class and discuss the rankings at the next faculty meeting.

But at the same time, Tankersley said that it’s important to keep rankings in perspective. Some initiatives are more important to focus on rather than those that will directly affect Businessweek’s rankings. The school should not solely play the ranking game, he said.

Prospective students shouldn’t worry about rankings, Tankersley said.

Students must choose a business program that meets their expectations and the experience they desire. Tankersley was recently in New York City conducting an admissions presentation when a student asked about the drop.

‘There are more unique things about our program,’ Tankersley said. ‘I wouldn’t worry about rankings. If you’re a good student at any of these schools, you’ll do well when you get out.’

And students are indeed confident that Whitman has done well to prepare them when they do graduate.

‘I don’t think the rankings will affect me by any means,’ said Nick Cammuso, a senior finance and management major.

Said Cammuso: ‘The only thing that’s changed with the years is me becoming more endeared to my professors, and they’re only getting better.’

meltagou@syr.edu 

Published on April 3, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Marwa: meltagou@syr.edu | @marwaeltagouri