Fordham’s part-time MBA program was ranked fifth in the Northeast and 55th nationally in an analysis published on Nov. 6 by BusinessWeek magazine.
The results are based on several factors, the largest of which is alumni survey responses, said Celia Cameron, director of communications at the Graduate School of Business Administration.
Nearly half of the graduates from Fordham’s part-time program reported an average salary increase of 38 percent. BusinessWeek rated Fordham best for job changers and career switchers. The average GMAT score for part-time MBA students is 578. There is an 85 percent completion rate.
“We are constantly striving to enhance the services provided to our students and alumni, who are the lifeblood of our institution,” said Robert Himmelberg, Ph.D., interim dean of GBA and co-dean of business faculty.
Students that responded to the BusinessWeek rankings survey said they appreciated Fordham’s “smart faculty and part-time-friendly facilities,” however they expect more networking, considering its location in New York City, the rankings indicated.
A decline in student expectations was common throughout the survey responses received this year, according to BusinessWeek.
“Once designed to give promising managers some high-level training and then return them to the corporate fold, part-time and executive MBA programs have been transformed entirely by the economic downturn,” wrote the magazine’s editors on BusinessWeek.com.
“Far more students use the programs as transitions to new jobs or even new careers. As a result, students are expecting the kind of job-placement services usually reserved for full-time students to help them on their way,” they continued.
The rankings are based—solely, or in part—on surveys of the programs’ main constituents: EMBA graduates and program directors, part-time MBA students, and companies that enroll employees in executive-education courses.
This marks the latest honor received this year by Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration. In August, it was named to Forbes magazine’s list of best business schools. GBA came in at number 57, ahead of schools such as Boston University, George Washington University and the University of California, Davis.
GBA also ranked fourth among Catholic graduate business schools, after those at Georgetown, Notre Dame and Boston College.
The magazine’s sixth biennial list ranks business schools on the basis of the return on investment graduates have achieved after five years.
The Forbes ranking is one of many new rankings bestowed on Fordham GBA over the last nine months:U.S. News & World Report ranked Fordham’s part-time MBA 30th, and its finance area 21st, in specialty programs; and The Wall Street Journal ranked Fordham’s Executive MBA program 26th internationally overall, and 20th internationally for return on investment.
“This new ranking – and our recent placements in U.S. News and World Report, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal – reflects efforts we have been making in recent years to bring about positive changes at GBA,” Himmelberg said.
