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From Wall Street to boardrooms all across the country, Boston College's Carroll School of Management is becoming a household name. In recent years, CSOM has flown up the charts of business school rankings, and in a recent poll released by BusinessWeek magazine, CSOM has been ranked as the 14th best undergraduate business program in the nation. CSOM was ranked 23rd in the nation last year - a nine-position advancement in just one year.
The BusinessWeek ranking is based on multiple factors, including a survey of students within the school. CSOM ranked 22nd in the student survey, a figure that Undergraduate Associate Dean Richard Keeley regards as instrumental to the program's rise over the past years. "Year to year, one of the things that really moved us is the student satisfaction index. Last year we were 29, this year we are 22nd," said Keeley.
"In terms of student satisfaction, I think that the ranking reflects overall satisfaction with BC as a whole just as much as it does with CSOM," said Dan Gabrielsen CSOM '08.
"We listened very carefully to student opinions. We found that students' greatest concern was the lack of advising, so we brought in a student advisor to help students with their major and career decisions," said Keeley. Nevertheless, Keeley is not satisfied with being ranked 22nd in student satisfaction. "It's a concern of mine, I'm not satisfied with being 22nd," said Keeley.
"I know that many students turn to their own professors for advising before they turn to an assigned advisor, but I think that trend may be phasing out somewhat," said Gabrielsen. "Advising was mediocre at best my freshman year and I think both the peer and faculty advising programs have made tremendous advances since then."
Newsweek deemed CSOM's faculty and alumni networking an "invaluable resource" for students, contributing to its high ranking. With powerful alumni in Wall Street and beyond, recruiters ranked CSOM 18th in the nation.
"Our networking is outstanding. Faculty members and alumni themselves prepare jobs for students. We are very strong in Wall Street in terms of alumni. We have good rapport," said James Halpin, Undergraduate Assistant Dean.
Other areas the poll ranked included starting salary for school graduates, as well as the amount of students accepted into MBA programs. The average starting salary for a CSOM undergraduate alum is $51,000, compared to $55,000 and $48,815 for rivals Georgetown and Norte Dame, respectively.
This figure landed CSOM an A-plus grade in job placement, placing it in the top 20 percent of the nation. CSOM also sent the 14th most amount of students to MBA programs among the schools surveyed.
"Our accounting department does a very good job with maintaining relationships with the big accounting firms. Students graduating with an accounting degree have a very good chance of landing a good job," added Halpin. The strength of the accounting department was highlighted by a Financial Times ranking in 2006, ranking CSOM as the seventh best.
Crucial to CSOM's ranking is the quality of its professors, long touted as among the best in the world as well as the BusinessWeek rankings, which awarded the school an A-plus in quality of teaching. Professor Mike Barry was voted best business professor at BC in a recent BusinessWeek survey, placing him among the top professors in the nation.
Other notables in CSOM include professor Alicia Munnell, who was voted one of the "top 100 most influential people in finance" in 2006 and professor G. Peter Wilson, the recipient of the 2005 Outstanding Accounting Educator Award.
"Our individual professors and their quality of teaching is one of the major reasons CSOM was ranked so highly," said Halpin.
"I think the move to 14 definitely reflects the quality of the CSOM faculty. Their accessibility and willingness to help students in the job search definitely merits the high grades in teaching quality and job placement," said Gabrielsen.
Despite the rankings, both Keeley and Halpin believe there is room for improvement. "I'd love to have more faculty and smaller classrooms, star factors in the rankings, which we are lagging behind," said Keeley.
The average class size in CSOM is 44 students, compared to 35 in a classroom at Norte Dame. Halpin added that he was surprised that CSOM received an A in facilities, pointing out the lack of technology in the classroom.
According to Halpin, CSOM should focus on creating its own niche, similar to Norte Dame and its emphasis on ethics, as a way of attracting more students.
"When I look at all of the rankings, sometimes I think we lose sight of what we are trying to do. Rather than trying to see what our neighbors are doing, we should worry about what we are doing and do it well," added Halpin.
"We have aspirations of going higher," said Keeley. n
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