Business school ranks in top tier

 By KRIS VAN CLEAVE
Staff Writer

USC's Marshall School of Business is now officially a top tier business school, according to the recent Business Week survey called "The top B schools."
The business school appeared for the first time in the renowned survey, ranked at No. 25. The survey ranks the top 25 business schools every two years.
"We have established ourselves as one of the elite business schools in the world," said Randolph Westerfield, dean of the Marshall School of Business.
Earlier this year the business school was ranked No. 21, up from 34, by U.S. News and World Report. The MBA-PM (night) program was ranked ninth, and the Executive MBA (or EMBA) was ranked 10th.
"We think that it reflects the hard work and quality of our students, faculty and our programs," Westerfield said. "(We have) strong students, world class faculty and great programs. This was just a reflection of those strong fundamentals."
This has been a banner year for the business school, Westerfield said.
It reached its capital campaign goal of $100 million, two and a half years early, and started construction on its new facility, Popovich Hall, which will open June 1, 1999. The school established an alumni association that currently has around 3,000 dues-paying members.
Also, this year the business school had the largest MBA applicant pool ever. The new class had the highest average GMAT score of 650 in the school's history. It had a selection rate of 26 percent, the lowest in the school's history. The business school recruited 10 new faculty members and began a new endowment.
"By making the top 25 we are now in that top tierŠthat people focus on," said Anne Loveland, a second-year MBA student.
"I think it is almost a milestone that we are heading toward a nationwide top tier school," said Ting-Ting Chen, a first-year MBA student.
"I am happy that we are rankedŠit will help us improve the applicant pool," said Douglas Joines, a finance professor who has been at USC since 1977.
This ranking will draw more people to the business school, said Keith Vaughn, director of MBA admissions. The school is expecting to receive 2,500 applications for 300 openings.
"Business Week's ranking will help us get on the radar of many students," Vaughn said.
"I think when it really comes down to it, its what students valueŠI love USC and the Marshall School," Chen said.
The school also received high marks for its popular PRIME program, which exposes full-time MBA students to foreign markets, including Asia and Europe.
Business Week surveyed more than 6,000 members of the class of 1998 and 259 recruiters.
Students were asked to rate the school using a one to 10 scale. The answers were compiled with results from the 1994 and 1996 surveys to produce the student satisfaction scores.
"Now we want to be in the top of the top tierŠI am pleased that we are in the top 25, but I am not satisfied with 25," Westerfield said. "I think we can do better than that, and I think we will do that."
"The business schools that prepare MBAs to embrace the global electronic economy will be the ones that will rise more quickly in the rankings in the coming years," said Omar El Sawy, a professor in information management.
"With many fresh progressive courses that address the central role of information systems in shaping enterprise operations," he said, "the USC Marshall school is advantageously poised for turning out MBA graduates with the necessary skills."

Copyright 1998 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 135, No. 29 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998), beginning on page 1 and ending on page 2.