Jones school ranks top 15

By Kevin Lin     4/8/10 7:00pm

With another rise in the rankings, the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business has proven that it means business. The Jones School was ranked in the top 15 in The Princeton Review's "Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools" finance category. Other categories ranked include programs with the highest student evaluations in the accounting, finance, general management, global management, marketing and operation categories. Schools are listed alphabetically, rather than individually ranked from 1 to 15. The results will appear in this month's issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

Dean of the Jones School William Glick said the school has always done very well in rankings - it ranked 53rd in the world last year, according to the Financial Times - especially in categories like financing and entrepreneurship, which both have been ranked among the top in the nation.

"This particular ranking is unique because it comes from the students," Glick said. "It's the students' report on what they got out of the program."

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The 80-question Princeton Review survey was taken by 19,000 business school students from around the country at 301 different universities. The students were asked to rate their classroom and campus experiences, provided by the Jones School. The students ranked how well they felt their school's courses had prepared them on a five-point scale, according to The Princeton Review.

While these rankings only cover MBA programs, the same faculty that teach MBA program classes also teach the business minor classes at Rice. These classes have done very well in students' course evaluations. For example, BUSI 296: Business Communications,scored a 1.44 out of five for course quality on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is outstanding and five is poor, compared to the Rice average, 1.93. Classes such as this will be scaled to accommodate more people in the future, Glick said.

Glick attributed The Princeton Review rankings to focusing on hiring good faculty and having open discussions about the curriculum.

"It's a proven process," Glick said. "You get really bright people engaging in good conversations, engaging in their research and it's that mix that really makes a difference."

Glick sees a strong doctorate program as an important player in the Jones School's expansion. The school is already on track to launch multiple doctorate programs in both finance and accounting. The finance program, which will launch next year, already has 300 applicants for six seats. Of the applicants who took the GRE, half got perfect scores on the quantitative side, Glick said.

Glick said the Jones School has achieved its current prominence by focusing on leadership and communication and by understanding the big picture. As such, graduates from the Jones School typically do much better three years after graduation compared to students from other MBA programs, and are much more likely to be promoted.

"I feel we're on a very strong trajectory," Glick said. "You start with fundamentals, you get good faculty, you develop programs and good things happen. We've not done this by focusing on rankings but focusing on what people care about."

MBA student Wasim Patel agrees with Dean Glick's sentiments.

"I think Jones has a very good faculty," Patel said. "It has a very good student body, and I think we're finally getting the recognition that we deserve, so I think in the coming days we can look forward to higher rankings.

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