Climbing the Rankings

Reputation Rising

The reputation of the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon continued to climb in the latest business school rankings from U.S. News & World Report and Bloomberg Businessweek.

From a recent survey of MBA alumni, Bloomberg Businessweek placed the college ninth for percentage of alumni founding startups. Among Oregon MBA alumni, 31 percent founded a startup after graduation.

Meanwhile, in a U.S. News survey of deans, directors, and department heads at peer business schools, the Lundquist College of Business undergraduate program averaged a reputation score of 3.4—up from 3.3 the previous year. Overall, the Lundquist College’s undergraduate program placed as follows in the 2020 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings, which were released on September 9, 2019:

  • #8 among business schools from Colorado west
  • #18 among business schools west of the Mississippi river
  • #22 among business schools at a university with total undergraduate enrollment less than 20,000
  • #31 among public business schools in the United States
  • #50 overall

In total, U.S. News considered 504 business school in the United States for its rankings. The U.S. News rankings of undergraduate business programs are based solely on reputation surveys sent to deans and senior faculty members at business schools accredited by AACSB International. Deans and faculty members rate the quality of all programs with which they are familiar on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). The reputation scores are then averaged. No other criteria are considered for the rankings.

AACSB International is the leading accreditation body for business schools worldwide. The Lundquist College of Business is among the elite 1.5 percent of business schools worldwide accredited in both business and accounting.

Bloomberg Businessweek annually surveys MBA alumni, students, and recruiters, as well as evaluates numerous data points, to arrive at is overall ranking for MBA programs, which are scheduled for release later this fall. In an effort to improve and expand its business school coverage, Bloomberg Businessweek has started providing quarterly updates with early insights from its rankings data. The college’s #9 ranking for alumni founding startups came from an early insights report released on September 11, 2019.

—Jim Engelhardt