Business Week's annual report on the national rankings of the best undergraduate business schools significantly rests on the feedback that the publication collects from senior business majors. In order for Loyola University Maryland's Sellinger School of Business and Management to be eligible for the national ranking in Business Week's report, a significant percentage of these students must complete the survey that will be administered within the next couple of weeks.
Last year, the major reason Loyola University Maryland was not ranked was because Business Week did not receive enough feedback from senior business majors via this survey. This course of action is detrimental on two fronts: One, the lack of response did not allow the business program to initialize programmatic improvement, and two, prospective students across the country could not use Business Week as a means to learn about Loyola's business program.
Strides have been made to encourage students to participate in the completion of this survey for the sake of programmatic feedback: senior leaders have been working to push their colleagues to complete the surveys, and the faculty has started to remind their senior students about the importance of the survey along with when and how to participate.
Dr. Karyl Leggio, Dean of the Sellinger School of Business and Management, believes that this survey "gives our program and our students the recognition they deserve. One of the most important features of these surveys is it enhances our reputation on a national scale. Business Week is a national publication; receiving recognition brings Loyola's name to prospective students and employers in a larger geographical range." The survey not only confirms what business programs do well, but it also assists many prospective students and their parents with a means to learn more about the business programs featured.
As a professor and Senior Associate Dean of the Sellinger School of Business, Dr. Roger Kashlak tells his students to answer honestly - good, bad, or indifferent. "The student feedback is crucial for improving our own program," he said. Dr. Kashlak also notes the importance of this survey. "Our executive, professional and Global Management MBA programs are receiving recognition. The last piece is our undergraduate program."
Though there are several criteria that the publication takes into account, one of the most important factors of this process is the surveying of students. The publication asks senior business students to describe their learning experience throughout their Loyola career in the Sellinger School. Business Week relies heavily on both the feedback of students and the school's top corporate recruiting firms in determining program ranking.
"These surveys are important because rank is definitely linked to prestige - numbers matter, especially for students in the school selection process," says senior business major Andrew Nester.
In addition to these surveys, there are several factors that Business Week calculates into determining any business school's national ranking. The publication investigates the quality of the faculty, academic programs and facilities. They also gauge the academic quality of each business program by looking at SAT scores, student-faculty ratios, class size, the number of students participating in internships and the number of hours students spend on class work.
Business Week surveys Loyola's top corporate recruiting firms by asking them about the quality of the Loyola graduates. The publication compares Loyola business students to peer institutions and investigates the success rate of these students in advancing within their careers. The publication looks at the median starting salaries for graduates along with the number of graduates each program sends to top MBA programs.
More importantly than receiving national recognition, Sellinger uses this Business Week survey to improve their own program by taking into account what the students are saying. For example, Dean Leggio notes that several strides have been made to initiate more involvement with the Career Center. "[The Career Center] is always looking for ways to improve the presentation and style of our students. Last year we introduced a pilot program of practice interviews where we had a combination of alumni and local businesses come to our Career Center to practice with our students. We're always looking for different ways to grow - it's our goal to constantly build upon the number of employers that we have connections with," says Mary DeManss, Assistant Director and Recruiter Specialist of the Career Center.
Steps such as student focus groups, more recruiting from New York and the Baltimore area, more internship opportunities and an increase in mock interviews have also been implemented as a result of student feedback from these surveys.
Furthermore, Loyola prides itself on the tradition of upholding a unique educational experience for all students, and Dean Leggio believes that Loyola's business program is different from any other business school for many reasons.
"The liberal arts core is imperative to developing leaders of virtue and compassion - it helps students learn to think, to make connections between historic events and today's business activities and begins to develop the ethical framework that will help our students to succeed. At Loyola we don't just teach ethics in one class - we live ethics. It's why we believe experiential learning is so important; it opens students' eyes to the needs of the less advantaged and to the differences around the world. A Jesuit education, and particularly a Jesuit education at Loyola University Maryland, is good for future leaders of industry," said Leggio.
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