The Top Ten Business Colleges

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Many people, perhaps buoyed by visions of Donald Trump’s billion-dollar empire, or their own desires to augment their income or simply add fuel to the country’s already burgeoning economy, are taking up business courses. Indeed, there is something so alluring about the almighty dollar or the arguably more thrilling prospect of outwitting your business rivals that pushes people to study the ins and outs of running a business. And now with the possibility of getting a degree online, schools such as Keller Graduate School of Business Management are becoming more and more popular.

Like all school rankings, ranking which colleges or programs offer the best business education is a daunting task. It is compounded by many factors such as facilities, rates of return on investment, alumni, faculty etc. To determine the schools in this list, The Princeton Review considered the following factors: institutional data concerning job placement and the average starting salary of students after they receive their precious diplomas. It also asked the students to discuss the efforts and responsibilities of their respective career placement offices, their own level of preparation to take on the outside world and the quality of the recruiting companies. The results are as follows:

Stanford University ranks as the number one business school. According to the Career Management Center of the university, it doesn’t even have to do a whole lot to ensure their students land good jobs. The companies themselves come looking for Stanford MBAs. Students also agree that Stanford has a great, wide alumni network where you can get help when needed. The university also frequently invites visiting lecturers who include "frequent luminaries such as top CEOs” according to one student. Students also appreciate the atmosphere, the “collaborative culture” that “frees you from focusing on just grades and enables you to undertake academic risks.”

Second is the University of Chicago in Illinois. As one student boasts, University of Chicago is one of only a few schools to have been at the top for nearly a century. In third place is the University of California in Berkeley. Students here benefit from their program’s prestigious reputation and high profile.

Then there is the University of Michigan, or more particularly Michigan’s Ross School of Business. There’s also Columbia University in New York, New York.

Not to be missed is of course the University Of Pennsylvania Wharton School Of Business. Simply drop the name Wharton and you can pretty much guarantee that favored spot. The school also goes all out on its career services office, conducting mock interviews, internship placement etc. This school is best known for its "strong emphasis on quantitative analysis" according to one student.

New York University, situated between Wall Street and Midtown, is also an ideal school for business. Not to mention it’s also located at the mecca of several key industries and business empires. Students at NYU's Stern School of Business boast of the fact that their ideal location makes it "well-connected with the large financial institutions" and that there are countless "opportunities to supplement coursework with practical experience."

Who could miss Harvard University? Harvard has 17 endowed chairs in entrepreneurship and its almost 1000 MBA students are required to take entrepreneurship courses in their first semester. Some of its classes are conducted with the help of some of the country’s most respected CEOs such as David Neeleman, CEO of Jet Blue and fashion designer Kate Spade.

The other campus of University of California in Los Angeles also made it to the list of the top business schools in the country. Its alumni include more than 33,000 entrepreneurs, corporate executives, film producers, financiers, business moguls, high tech innovators and more.

Another school in Illinois that made it to the cut is the Northwestern University in Evanston. The Kellogg School of Management is particularly impressive because of a Web-based program called TeamNet which allows students to receive detailed, honest and confidential feedback on how they work in teams.” Students are confident that their school has a “sterling reputation among corporate recruiters.” It focuses heavily on marketing, finance and consulting courses.