Anderson School places in top 10 nationwide
By Laryssa Kreiselmeyer
UCLA now has more justification for boasting about its business school.
The Anderson Graduate School of Management placed No. 9 in Business Week magazine's national survey of the top business schools, which follows its goal to "achieve and maintain preeminence among the world's graduate schools of management," said Dean William Pierskalla.
The Anderson School improved its Business Week rating more dramatically than any other school in the survey, moving up seven positions in this year's ranking. Yet Pierskalla and students are looking forward to further improvement.
"This puts us in striking range (of the top five)," said External Affairs Director Sue Johnson.
To obtain the results, Business Week polled the most recent graduates of the schools and corporations. The survey observed annual tuition, applicants accepted and enrollment vs. the score that graduates and corporations gave the institution.
The school's class of 1994 rated UCLA as No. 2 in graduate satisfaction, a category in which schools often receive low marks, the report showed. The graduates also received an average of 2.74 job offers after graduation.
"It's great to celebrate, and we will, but we have to stay focused. There is a lot of work ahead of us and we can't let up now," said John Carmichael, president of the Associated Students of Business.
In order to communicate the success of the school in the Business Week survey, several students formed the Public Relations Committee, designed to inform the undergraduate student body of the function and continuing activities of the business school.
"It's important that undergraduates know what's going on over here," said Ben Croce, a first-year graduate business student and committee member.
Anderson School officials said they would like for the school to become as well known as other business schools, such as Pennsylvania's Wharton and Northwestern's Kellogg. Eventually, they want the school to be recognized solely by the name Anderson and without needed reference to UCLA, Croce said.
"The thought is that we are going to be moving up higher," Croce said.
The Anderson School received 577 applications for admission in 1995, compared with 427 in 1994. It now admits 20 percent of all applicants, but the number is expected to decrease in the next few years with rising admissions standards, according to Mary Daily, the school's public and media relations director.
The average admitted student last year scored 640 on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) out of a possible 800 and the class grade point average was 3.5. Such competitive academic standards match other improvements, such as a 70 percent increase of alumni funding and a 33 percent increase of endowed chairs, or positions for professors established by donations.
"One of the dean's goals is to maintain and build a high quality faculty," said Daily.
The survey reported Wharton as the best business school, followed by Kellogg and Chicago respectively.