Kelley School jumps to 5th in new Wall Street Journal ranking

Corporate recruiters ranked the Kelley School of Business as their fifth favorite program in the region, according to a recent survey by The Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive.\n“Recruiters noted that students are more polished and sharper, especially in their marketing skills, and that the career services office has become more responsive,” The Wall Street Journal reported about the Kelley School. “The survey respondents awarded Indiana higher scores this year for incorporating experiential learning into the curriculum, faculty expertise and course content, and overall recruiting value.”\nThe school’s ranking rose 10 spots from 15th last year – the most dramatic improvement of any Big Ten school.\nKelley School Dean Dan Smith attributes the higher ranking to new initiatives that have been implemented over the past year. \n“We now require all students to join what are called ‘Career Focus Academies,’” Smith said. “The academies are led by faculty who are experts in a particular career area. Our faculty works closely with students to prepare them for specific career paths and also work closely with corporate recruiters to make sure they are getting the types of students that best fit their needs. It’s a win-win partnership.”\nPam Roberts, the director of Graduate Career Services, also commented on the successes of these new initiatives.\n“We have great relationships with companies all over the country, and the world, and we focus on making sure our students are prepared for the specific industry they are seeking positions in,” she said. “I believe this gives our students an advantage and contributes to what helped us do well in this year’s ranking.”\nSome of the new initiatives were promoted to deal with students’ professional development and employers’ recruiting efforts. For instance, in 2006, the MBA Program offered ‘InterviewStream,’ an online interviewing tool. This past year they also introduced new sessions called Interview Bootcamp, Internship 501 and Re-entering the Grind. Roberts said this prepared the students for job recruitment. \nThis year the Graduate Career Services Office started offering “Kelley Idol,” “a speed networking program, which highlights the students with the best introduction,” Roberts noted. \nBesides overall rankings, The Wall Street Journal also calculated rankings for the business schools by industry. Once again the Kelley School did well. Programs in consumer products, and energy and industrial products and services were second, marketing was third and accounting eighth.\nUnlike IU, many other Big Ten schools did not fare as well. Michigan State University went from fifth to 18th, the University of Iowa went from 16th to 31st and Purdue fell from number one two years ago to fourth last year to twelfth this year.\nThe Wall Street Journal makes a distinction between schools that are “nationally” and “regionally” ranked. National schools more heavily draw from large national and multi-national firms than regional schools, the paper said. Northwestern and University of Michigan received national rankings, but IU was only included in the regional rankings.