After the U.S. News & World Report put TCU in the Top 100 for Masters of Business Administration programs, O. Homer Erekson said he was proud of the work put in by all people involved in the school.
Erekson, the John V. Roach Dean at the Neeley School of Business, said, “Our continual upward performance in the U.S. News ranking of top graduate business schools is a testament to our MBA admissions staff to recruit the best students and our faculty to deliver an outstanding master’s program in business.”
In the survey, U.S. News looked at a total of 437 MBA programs. According to the rankings, TCU’s MBA program jumped 14 places to No. 80 from No. 94 last year. Also, the part-time MBA program designed for mid-level working professionals was ranked 73rd in the nation.
Senior marketing major TJ Shepherd said, “The rankings show a really good product of hard work of both the students and faculty in the business school. The fact that we are up there in the same league with some of the best schools in the nation is really great.”
Shepherd said the ranking will help add prestige to their degree.
National accrediting agencies have only accredited about 500 MBA programs, and the environment is very competitive among universities who want their programs to be highly rated, he said. He said to make it even in the top 100 is to be considered to be part of the best programs in the country.
“There are clearly other [MBA] programs around the country like Stanford and Harvard that we recognize as truly outstanding programs,” Erekson said. “But we feel [our program] is in that second group of national leading programs. Our students not only do well while they are here, but they place well as they graduate.”
According to U.S. News, Stanford University ranked No. 1, followed by Harvard University.
Erekson said the improvements they have made in the program over the years, such as putting more emphasis on gaining experience, helped the Neeley School in the rankings.
“We immerse students in consulting opportunity projects where they can work directly with other companies,” he said. “[Students] not only need to be knowledgeable experts, but they also need to be able to effectively deliver and communicate their ideas.”
Bill Cron, associate dean of graduate programs, said TCU has also gained popularity because of the school’s location. Students are able to use their knowledge with great companies from the Metroplex, and people are also very attracted to the culture of the university, he said.
“TCU is this whole idea of small, personal and friendly,” he said. “Just like Fort Worth, this whole area is really unique.”
In some sense, students have the best of both situations 8212; lots of opportunities, but also still a human place to be, he said.
Graduate business student Graham Radler graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2006 and said one of the reasons he chose TCU’s MBA program over SMU’s was because of the location.
“Fort Worth is a great place to live and work,” Radler said. “And I wanted to build my relationship base around this part of Texas.”
Radler also said he was very attracted to the experiential segments that were offered in the program, like Neeley & Associates, a real life consulting program that students get class credit for.
Radler said he would recommend students enrolling in TCU’s MBA program.
“We have a very motivated class with very competitive guys that want to work hard,” he said.
