The Robins School of Business fell 30 places, from No. 16 to No. 46, in the Bloomberg Businessweek Undergraduate Business School rankings released online Tuesday morning.
Jim Monks, the associate dean of undergraduate business programs, wrote in an email that the drastic change in ranking is in part because of a new methodology used by Bloomberg, which places a higher emphasis on employer rankings.
“We have never scored well on the Employer Survey, as many of our top employers refuse to participate,” Monks wrote. “This has placed us at a real disadvantage.”
This year the Employer Survey counted for 40 percent of the total weight in the final ranking, making Robins School of Business 85th in that category.
The weight of the Employer Survey was not the only change made to the system this year. Academic quality, an area in which the Robins School scored the No. 2 position in previous years, is no longer a factor considered in the rankings.
The move from No. 16 to No. 46 is concerning for current and graduating students, especially as they apply for summer internships and full-time jobs.
“It's not a reflection of how hard so many of the students have been working,” junior Yadeni Abagaro said. “Since it's coming out while we’re still students, it seems like it’s a reflection of our work.”
But the change in rankings may point to bigger issues in the Robins School. Abagaro, who is a double major in healthcare and business administration with concentrations in economics and management, said disparities between professors seem to be an issue most business students struggle with.
“It's hard to get consistency among professors, but at the business school, there definitely is a big difference between easy professors versus hard ones,” Abagaro said.
Lyndsay Patterson, a senior majoring in marketing and management, said the differences between professors most likely affected this year’s lower ranking. The feedback from surveyed business students ranked the Robins School as 24th in that category, which counted for 35 percent of the total weight.
“Some people get by in school, and when they get in the real world they are shocked by the amount of work,” Patterson said.
Registration is particularly stressful because of this disparity.
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“Everyone is going for the same professors," Abagaro said. "That’s why certain sections will fill up, while there’s tons of spots in the same time slot with a different professor."
The Robins School, Monks wrote, feels confident that the lower ranking of the program from employers does not accurately represent the school’s quality and success.
“This is not a reflection of our employers’ actual level of satisfaction with our graduates, but rather a reflection of our employers’ reluctance to rate and rank the various schools from which they hire students,” Dean Monks wrote.
Along with releasing its rankings today, Bloomberg announced that this would be the last year that it would rank undergraduate business schools and MBA programs.
“Clearly, they too are unhappy with the results,” Monks wrote.
Contact reporter Audrey Jordan at audrey.jordan@richmond.edu
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