The ranking comes from Poets&Quants, a business education outlet that released its survey results on March 1.
The undergraduate business degree program at Elon’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business ranks among the best in the country, according to new rankings from business education news outlet Poets&Quants.
Elon’s program ranks No. 39 in the nation in the survey by Poets&Quants, which conducts the most comprehensive assessment of undergraduate business programs at private and public institutions of all sizes. Among just private colleges and universities, Elon’s program ranked No. 24. Within North Carolina, Elon’s program ranked second behind UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School (No. 10 nationally).
Raghu Tadepalli, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, said recognition in such a competitive ranking speaks to the quality of education the school delivers and the impact its alumni are having after they graduate.
“The Love School of Business ranks among the top business schools in the country thanks to dedicated faculty and staff who place student learning and success at the heart of what they do,” Tadepalli said. “The achievements of our alumni are a testament to the education and experiences they find at Elon.”
Poets&Quants for Undergrads compiled the 2023 rankings based on a representative survey of thousands of alumni and school-reported data. The survey methodology focuses on three main components — school admissions standards, alumni perspectives on the academic experience and employment outcomes data. Recent grads across the 92 business schools were surveyed on aspects of faculty availability, extracurricular opportunities, and accessibility of the alumni network.
Factoring into the rankings this year for the first time was information about the percentage of first-generation college students, underrepresented minorities, international students and women among the student bodies of the schools which was used to create a diversity average. The rankings also included two years of alumni data instead of just one year.
“The needs of business are constantly evolving and students are demanding that schools respond,” said Nathan Allen, project manager for Poets&Quants for Undergrads. “We are pleased to enhance the value of our ranking this year by including diversity data to help our readers find the right fit.”
Elon achieved its highest marks in the area of academic experience, which was based on surveys of alumni who had been away from school for at least two years to determine how satisfied they were. Elon ranked No. 18 in the country in this category.
Among the questions alumni were asked were whether they would recommend the school to a friend, whether the business degree was worth the time and cost and how effective the career advising effort of the school was. Beyond a battery of 17 core questions, Poets&Quants asked alumni whether they had a “significant experience,” defined as a major consulting project, thesis, or other program feature instrumental to their professional development, or a meaningful global immersion, and if their first jobs after graduation were in their desired job functions, industries and companies.
Elon also received high marks in the area of career outcomes for alumni, which looked at the percentage of students with internships before graduation, with full-time jobs within three months of graduation along with average salary and signing bonuses for the classes of 2021 and 2022. The ranking also took into consideration the percentage of the classes of 2021 and 2022 that had internships before their senior year. For career outcomes, Elon ranked No. 26.
For admissions standards, the rankings considered average SAT scores for the last entering class, the percentage who finished in the top 10 percent of their classes in high school and the acceptance rate for the business school program, and other factors. Elon ranked No. 71 in this area.
Read the full methodology for the survey and rankings for more information.
Poets & Quants is headed by Editor-in-Chief John Byrne, who along with being the founder of C-Change Media formerly served as executive editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, Businessweek.com and Fast Company. He created the first regularly published rankings of business schools for Businessweek in 1988 and has authored several business school guidebooks.