Indiana State University Newsroom

Indiana State University's Master of Business Administration program in the Scott College of Business has been ranked the fifth best-administered program in the nation in The Princeton Review 2018 annual ranking lists of business schools.

The Princeton Review reports the top 10 ranking schools in 18 categories of interest to students applying to on-campus MBA programs.The rankings are based on student answers to survey questions concerning how smoothly the school is run and the ease with which students can get into required and popular courses.

"I know my staff is very good and makes a priority of professionalism and responsiveness, but I was surprised to look at the list and see the names we were in the company of," said Jeff Harper, executive director of graduate programs for the Scott College. "But I think the most important thing to our MBA students is that we've been ranked again, for the 12th consecutive year, as one of the best business schools. That really says a lot about the quality of education they get and all of the intangibles that are associated with a graduate degree."

Indiana State's program, which ranked above the University of Florida, Dartmouth College, Vanderbilt University, Duke University and Texas Christian University on the list, includes a staff of three people and about 130 students across its three MBA offerings - on-campus, Professional MBA in Plainfield and MBA in Education Leadership.

"We've been recognized by The Princeton Review for the overall MBA program for many years, but this is a pretty significant ranking for us," said Brien Smith, dean of the Scott College. "What we try to do in the college is view education a little more holistically, so what happens outside of the classroom is as important as what goes on inside the classroom. The program is built to offer students assistance in every way, not just what goes on inside the classroom."

The program's faculty also help to make it what it successful, Smith added.

"Our faculty are really dedicated to the program and we have excellent staff in the program," he said. "I think students can feel that we are really interested in their career readiness, professional development and student success."

The ranking comes as no surprise to Indiana State graduate Tom Panko, who landed employment as a product quality engineer for Apple in Cupertino, Calif., upon graduating from with his MBA in 2017.

"I think the biggest difference the MBA was with the communication soft skills that you develop from on-site classes, through group work, writing papers and giving presentations. You learn to communicate more effectively and confidently in both large and small groups of people," he said. "I'm grateful to Indiana State's Scott College of Business for creating an affordable MBA program that allowed me to take full-time night classes while working as an engineer. This program helped move my career to the next step I was hoping to achieve."

Writer: Betsy Simon, media relations assistant director, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-7972 or betsy.simon@indstate.edu