College News
Rankings
Rankings Change-up
Since 2006, Bloomberg Businessweek has published an annual ranking of the top undergraduate business programs in the nation. And for the last five years — 2010-2014 — Mendoza College of Business has claimed the No. 1 spot.
However, Businessweek put the ranking on hold for 2015 while the business publication reconsidered its methodology. When it resumes in 2016, the survey will focus on “the aspect of business programs that sets them apart from other undergraduate programs: career preparation,” according to the publication’s business school staff. This means that the methodology will no longer include a measure of academic quality. The components are as follows: employer survey, 40 percent; student survey, 35 percent; Class of 2015 starting compensation, 15 percent; and the proportion of Class of 2015 with internships, 10 percent.
Businessweek also made changes to its rankings of graduate programs. Most notably, full-time MBA rankings will be published on an annual basis in the fall instead of biennially. The new methodology also omits intellectual capital as a measure, but introduces an alumni survey. The elements include: employer survey, 35 percent; alumni survey, 30 percent; student survey, 15 percent; Class of 2014 placement rate three months from graduation, 10 percent; and starting compensation for combined classes of 2012-14, 10 percent.
Silver and Gold
The Mendoza College picked up three honors for its marketing efforts from the 30th Annual Educational Advertising Awards, which are sponsored by Higher Education Marketing Report. Mendoza’s outdoor ad campaign in Chicago’s Millennial Station won a gold and a Best in Show award. The College’s newly redesigned website received a silver award.
The Educational Advertising Awards is the largest competition focused on educational advertising in the country. This year, 2,000-plus entries were received from more than a thousand colleges, universities and secondary schools nationwide as well as several foreign countries.
Many Paths
The theme of the Seventh Annual Undergraduate Women in Business (UWIB) Professional Development Conference, held at Mendoza Feb. 13-14, was “Finding a Career Path You Love.” Business and non-business students gathered to hear about the many career paths available to women from speakers Kristin Boyd, a vice president in equity derivative sales at Credit Suisse, and Laura Hollis, an associate professional specialist of accountancy at Mendoza. The conference, co-chaired by students Patricia Bartlett (ACCT ’16) and Whitney Spiegel (FIN ’17), also included a panel discussion and speed-networking session.
“The sense I get from this conference, as well as a lot of other conversations I have had with college-age women, is that they feel enormous pressure to do every- thing, and to make everyone happy. They have a hard time knowing the difference between what’s expected of them, and what will make them happy,” said Hollis.
“Most of my advice was about finding balance, which in my opinion, means seeing your career as part of your life, not your whole life, as well as thinking about the entire length of your life. In other words, you shouldn't be thinking that everything has to be ‘done’ by the time you are 30 or 40,” Hollis added.
The publication plans to discontinue its biennial ranking of Executive MBA and Executive Education programs altogether.
Blue Equals Green
BlueBucket started as a classroom project, but the social venture already has launched in the South Bend area with some success. And the three business undergraduates behind it have their sights set on putting “blue buckets” across the U.S. as a way of boosting charitable donations and building community spirit.
Founded by seniors Mary Cornfield, Alisha Anderson and Caitlin Crommett, BlueBucket partners with local restaurants to collect donations for area charities. The concept is straightforward: Restaurants designate certain menu items as “BlueBucket” and agree to donate part of the price to charity. The customer chooses the charity from a list to receive the donation, which is forwarded on a monthly basis. The students currently have five eateries on board, as well as five charities. Visit the website bluebucketsb.weebly.com for more information.
“It’s nice to see something we’ve been doing in class actually make it into the community,” Cornfield said. “It’s nice knowing that the products we bring into market are helping charities raise money.”
Comments