Kelley ranks as top business school for classroom experience

The IU Kelley School of Business was recently ranked as the top business school for “Best Classroom Experience” by the Princeton Review.

Based on 19,000 students from 296 business schools, the Princeton Review assembled these rankings of top honors.

“The Princeton Review is one of the most thoughtful approaches to ranking programs because of the questions they ask,” said Jim Wahlen, chairman of Kelley’s MBA program, “They ask the questions directly of the students in the programs. So they’re not trying to say ‘OK, overall the best program is Harvard or Stanford or Indiana.’ They’re saying ‘No, from a classroom experience perspective, the students who’ve experienced the classroom rank Kelley’s best, from a family’s perspective, from a facility’s perspective.’”

The school also ranked third in “Most Family Friendly” and fourth for “Best Campus Facilities.”

Kelley’s accolades do not stop just at top-notch classroom experience, but professors as well. Kelley’s Master of Business Administration program ranked second in “Best Professors.”

“We have authors of the top-selling academic textbooks, we have tremendous researchers,” said  Chip Snively, a senior lecturer in finance. “I’d like to certainly see that our peers are a No. 1 ranking type of faculty but No. 2 is a very good recognition of the product we produce out of here.”

Although the Princeton Review self-selects, Snively said he believes this survey is an accurate description of rankings. Snively said each publication ranks differently, and Kelley does not rely on one heavily over the other.

“The things we strive for are quality education, good recognition for the students,” Snively said. “I think the one thing that you see is our rankings don’t fluctuate tremendously. You’ll see some schools that jump into the top 10 and then you won’t see them in the top 50 two years later, so consistent rankings are certainly something I think we’re most proud of, and they’re high rankings in general.”

These high ratings by the Princeton Review have been high for the past three or four years, Wahlen said.

“We have faculty that have actually been around the business world that bring real-life experiences,” said junior Mike Rarey. “Their teaching methods are also current and applicable to the business world. So we get so many real-life situations that we can just pick right over to a position. It’s like we’re actually working toward a corporation that’s inside the classroom.”

Because the rankings are considered accurate, they will be used in promoting IU’s business school to the nation and potential students, Wahlen said.

“What we can influence and what we can do is run the very best program, and we do that for our students,” Wahlen said. “Now along the same lines, hopefully, the students who consider whether to come to Kelley for the MBA or not look most closely at what we do here as a program.”

Overall, the business school is incredibly pleased with the rankings, Snively said. He believes a large amount of satisfaction is being derived from the classroom experience and the quality education they are receiving.

“We produce a great product here, and it’s getting the recognition it deserves,” Snively said.