Kelley School ranked best in classroom experience

For the fourth year in a row, the Princeton Review ranked the Kelley School of Business MBA program among the top in the country.\nThe report, released Sunday, ranked the program first for “Best Classroom Experience,” second for “Best Professors” and “Best Campus Facilities” and fourth for “Most Family Friendly.” \nThe Princeton Review report consists of 11 categories, 10 of which were at least partially based on surveys filled out by 19,000 students from 290 business schools across the country.\nThe Kelley School of Business is accustomed to high national rankings, but James Wahlen, chairman of the MBA program, said that’s not what the school is about.\n“(Rankings) don’t define who we are or what we do,” Wahlen said. “We appreciate the rankings, but we don’t try to fine-tune our program to improve them – we can’t control them.”\nPeter Kuo, director of the MBA student government association and second-year graduate student, said a collaborative learning environment is the reason why the Kelley School got first in the “Best Classroom Experience” category.\nWhile Kuo described professors at other universities as being in “ivory towers,” unavailable to students, he said professors at the Kelley School are very open to students both academically and socially.\n“In the free flow of ideas you get such a diverse and broad range of ideas and experiences,” Kuo said. “And that makes it so special.”\nThis year, the MBA program saw enrollment increase 16 percent from last year, Wahlen said.\n“That says a lot more about our program than any particular ranking,” he added.\nA few weeks ago, a Wall Street Journal report ranked Kelley fifth in regional business schools, 10 spots higher than its 2006 ranking. BusinessWeek magazine ranked the school 18th nationwide and sixth-best among public schools. \nRankings are simply the outcome of hard work said Dan Smith, dean of the Kelley School \nof Business.\n“We are always raising the bar in terms of our expectations of ourselves,” Smith said. “We are never content with how we are doing. We don’t do things for the rankings. Rather, our focus is on constant innovation and improvement, and if we do that, the rankings should \ncarry themselves.”