U.S. News will deny business subfield rankings to schools without FT residential MBA

[Jonathan Whatley]

Schools That Will Lose U.S. News Specialty Rankings
School, # of Rankings Lost, 2024 Specialty Rankings

• Loyola Marymount University, 6, International (18), Entrepreneurship (19), Marketing (21), Management (22), Finance (33), Accounting (41)
  
• Purdue University (Daniels), 5, Product & Operations (3), Project Management (4), Supply Chain/Logistics (7), Business Analytics (13), Information Systems (14)
  
• Gonzaga University, 5, Project Management (4), Entrepreneurship (11), Finance (21), Management (31), Accounting (41)
  
• University of Illinois (Gies), 4, Accounting (3), Production/Operations (22), Management (27), Finance (33)
  
• Fairfield University (Dolan), 4, Accounting (16), Marketing (17), Business Analytics (25), Finance (25)
  
• Santa Clara University (Leavey), 4, Business Analytics (11), Marketing (12), Entrepreneurship (14), Finance (19) 
  
• Saint Joseph’s University (Haub) 4 Marketing (17), Accounting (21), Finance (26), Business Analytics (30)
  
• Seattle University (Albers), 3, Accounting (16), Business Analytics (16), Finance (24)
  
• Creighton University (Heider), 3, Finance (10), Business Analytics (17), Accounting (22)
  
• University of Scranton (Kania), 3, Accounting (19), Finance (28), Business Analytics (28)
  
• Marquette University, 2, Finance (31), Accounting (35)
  
• Rockhurst University (Helzberg), 2, Business Analytics (25), Management (27)
  
• University of Iowa (Tippie), 1, Accounting (35)
  
• Georgia State University (Robinson), 1, Information Systems (10)
  

U.S. News Ranking Change Will Leave Some B-Schools Out In The Cold (John A. Byrne, Poets & Quants, March 31, 2025)

[ss20ts]

These rankings are always such entertainment. Some of them are just bizarre. Do people still put much faith into these rankings today? Everyone and their grandmother has a rankings list or 12.

[bjcheung77]

Most of the rankings are good to review just for purposes of seeing what is out there that may interest you, but I always take into consideration how they got to that and what methodology they used. Otherwise, I combine the few and make my own... Something similar to what I did with a set of Caribbean Medical Schools, some have a dental or vet school as well...

[FireMedic_Philosopher]

The rankings don't matter to me, but I guess I am confused. I know several of these schools offer in person MBAs, in addition to online programs. UIUC for one... so are they losing out because the in-person route is not the ONLY offered MBA ?

[Jonathan Whatley]

The rankings don't matter to me, but I guess I am confused. I know several of these schools offer in person MBAs, in addition to online programs. UIUC for one... so are they losing out because the in-person route is not the ONLY offered MBA ?

UIUC Gies ended its on-campus MBA program, with the last class entering in 2019 and graduating in 2021. Gies continues to offer on-campus MS programs in business subfields and a Master of Accounting Science.

[FireMedic_Philosopher]

The rankings don't matter to me, but I guess I am confused. I know several of these schools offer in person MBAs, in addition to online programs. UIUC for one... so are they losing out because the in-person route is not the ONLY offered MBA ?

UIUC Gies ended its on-campus MBA program, with the last class entering in 2019 and graduating in 2021. Gies continues to offer on-campus MS programs in business subfields and a Master of Accounting Science.

Hmm... they also still offer in person PhDs in Business, Accounting, and in finance.

All of the MS degrees are offered in person EXCEPT for the MBA... weird.

They are just up the road from me. I never knew the MBA was now totally online. Seems very odd given all the other programs at Gies are still offered in person or else ONLY available as in person programs.

BTW... the family just donated 100 mil to have the UIUC football stadium renamed.

[Jonathan Whatley]

I never knew the MBA was now totally online. Seems very odd given all the other programs at Gies are still offered in person or else ONLY available as in person programs.

Reasonable explanation: The on-campus master’s in subfields of business are more typically funded programs providing research and teaching assistants to Gies and producing scholars who will go on to PhDs and faculty.

[Kjnova]

Rankings like this are mostly useful just to see what the "general opinion" is of a school. They aren't reality or very close to reality, but for programs where how it's PERCEIVED can sometimes be as important as what is taught/learned, they can still be useful.

I am not sure why they'd make this change. Is it implying that only on-campus learning is valid? That is clearly not the case.

That said, as a UIUC MBA student, I don't particularly care because I think most people will default to whatever their general opinion of the university was already.

[FireMedic_Philosopher]

I never knew the MBA was now totally online. Seems very odd given all the other programs at Gies are still offered in person or else ONLY available as in person programs.

Reasonable explanation: The on-campus master’s in subfields of business are more typically funded programs providing research and teaching assistants to Gies and producing scholars who will go on to PhDs and faculty.

Reasonable, and possibly correct for a very small number of students. However Gies is actually a huge money maker for the school and most graduate students pay full tuition (or their employer pays)... very few funded positions.