Business Week Surveys UB School of Management MBA Students

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Business Week magazine is surveying full-time MBA students in the University at Buffalo School of Management as part of its biennial effort to determine the "best business schools" in the United States.

According to the magazine's editors, the UB School of Management was one of 61 business schools, among 324 accredited schools nationwide, whose MBA students were selected to participate in the survey.

Members of the UB full-time MBA Class of 1998 received the confidential student-satisfaction survey, which asks them to answer questions regarding the quality and value of the MBA program, quality of the teaching, strength of the program's job-placement services, and quality of its interaction with the business community, among other questions.

The survey is used by Business Week, in combination with a survey of more than 300 corporate recruiters that commonly hire MBAs, to determine the "top 50" business schools in the country. Business Week promotes its special "Best Business Schools" issue, to be published October 18, as a consumer-satisfaction guide for prospective MBA students and corporate recruiters.

It is the first time since 1988 -- when Business Week ranked the UB School of Management as one of the top 40 business schools in the U.S. -- that the national business magazine has targeted UB students for surveying.

According to John M. Thomas, interim dean of the school, Business Week selected the school's MBA Class of '98 for the survey based on positive word-of-mouth from corporate recruiters, the school's improved job-placement statistics and recent enhancements within the school's MBA curriculum.

Thomas met in March with Business Week's management editor in New York City to discuss curriculum innovations and new developments within the UB school.

The School of Management's full-time MBA program is currently unranked by Business Week, but is cited as a "top program" on the magazine's Web site and is ranked 41st in the country by "The Gourman Report," published by The Princeton Review.

The school also offers a part-time Professional MBA program for low- and mid-level managers and an Executive MBA program for more-experienced managers. All of the school's academic programs are accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).