Three Va. biz schools make top 50 in Poets&Quants rankings

Three Virginia business schools placed in the top 50 of 91 schools in Poets&Quants’ 2024 rankings of undergraduate business schools, released Monday.

Poets&Quants for Undergrads, an online publication and forum dedicated to business schools, ranks schools by three categories: admissions standards, academic experience and career outcomes. Each category is evenly weighted, although metrics within them have varying weights.

The University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce was the top-ranking Virginia business school of those included in the rankings, coming in at No. 4 overall for the second year in a row. It was the highest-ranking school in the academic experience category, earning the best possible score.

“As this ranking demonstrates, our undergraduate program excels in supporting our students academically and professionally as they use commerce to make a positive impact — both here on Grounds and in a multitude of careers across the globe,” McIntire Dean Nicole Thorne Jenkins said in a statement. “Year after year, McIntire’s repeated success is possible because our students and alumni benefit from the ongoing commitment of our faculty and staff to create transformational learning experiences.”

Virginia’s second highest-ranking business school for undergraduates was the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business, which ranked 18th overall. The school was one of two to report 100% of 2023 job-seeking graduates were employed within three months of graduation. (The other was Florida Southern College.)

“Our focus continues to be on creating an exceptional learning experience in and out of the classroom that prepares students to make a positive impact,” Mickey Quiñones, dean of the Robins School, said in a statement. “It is gratifying to see these efforts reflected in this year’s results. We know that the world is dynamic, and we constantly evaluate our approach to stay relevant.”

The remaining Virginia school included in Poets&Quants rankings, William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business, ranked No. 48 overall. William & Mary rose 20 places from its 2023 rank, the biggest leap in this year’s rankings. In 2023, William & Mary rose 17 spots from the year before, landing at No. 68. The school’s best score was in the admissions standards category, ranking 15th.

The No. 1 school was the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Poets&Quants mostly gathers admissions and career data through institutional surveys completed by the schools between July 2023 and December 2023. Data on the percent of alumni who were National Merit Scholar finalists or semifinalists and the percent of alumni who finished in the top 10% of their high school classes come from alumni surveys. Admissions category metrics include SAT scores, acceptance rates and diversity data from the entering class.

All of the academic experience data comes from alumni surveys administered between June and December 2023. This year, the publication surveyed students from the class of 2021 and included three years’ worth of alumni data.