Santa Clara University

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 27, 2009 — The undergraduate business program at Santa Clara University is ranked #32 in the nation, according to “The Best Undergraduate B-schools,” published Feb. 26 by BusinessWeek magazine. Last year the Leavey School of Business placed #35 in the annual rating.

“Undergraduate students, their parents, and Silicon Valley employers have long recognized the strengths of our undergraduate business program: our rigorous curriculum, emphasis on ethics, and exploration of the global nature of business,” said Barry Z. Posner, dean of the Leavey School of Business. “We’re delighted that these attributes are gaining national attention as well.”

The rankings singled out the school’s focus on business ethics as well as the innovation-rich Silicon Valley location.

Santa Clara University received an “A”  in its rating of facilities this year, a significant jump from the “C” grade it received in 2007, the first year it participated in the rankings.

“Our new facility, Lucas Hall, is a perfect complement to our focus on student learning,” said S. Andrew Starbird, faculty director for undergraduate business programs. “State-of-the-art classrooms, technology, and meeting spaces are providing new opportunities for students and faculty to work together.”

This is the third consecutive year that the Leavey School of Business (http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/02/0226_best_undergrad_bschools/20.htm) undergraduate program has been ranked by the magazine.

BusinessWeek’s ranking of “The Best Undergraduate B-Schools” is available in the March 9, 2009 issue of BusinessWeek, on newsstands March 2. Expanded content, including the full ranking and methodology, interactive tables, and a discussion forum are available on BusinessWeek.com. 

 http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/undergraduate.

To rank these programs, BusinessWeek used nine measures, including surveys of 85,000 senior business majors and nearly 600 corporate recruiters, median starting salaries for graduates, and the number of graduates each program sends to top-MBA programs. The magazine also calculated an academic quality rating for each program by combining SAT scores, student-faculty ratios, class size, the percentage of students with internships, and the number of hours students devote to classwork.

About the Leavey School of Business
The Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University began in 1926 and was one of the first business schools in the country to receive national accreditation. Its undergraduate business program is among the top 35 in the nation and among the top three in California. The school’s MBA program has ranked in the top 15 for the past decade, and its Executive MBA is ranked 19th in the U.S. The school opened its new $49 million building for undergraduate, graduate, and professional business education in fall 2008. For more information, see www.scu.edu/business/

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its 8,685 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see

www.scu.edu

.