PROVO — Brigham Young University is back at No. 1 in the polls — this time as a business school.
Ratings from nearly 4,500 corporate job recruiters pushed BYU's Master of Business Administration (MBA) program into first place among 51 regional schools ranked in the annual Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey, up from third place last year and sixth place in 2005.
BYU's Marriott School of Management finished just ahead of Wake Forest University and Ohio State University. The University of Utah's Eccles School of Business slid from 32nd to 40th in the regional rankings.
The national rankings included only 19 schools, led by Dartmouth College. The newspaper also ranked 25 schools as international programs. The three categories are based on whether most graduates are hired by international, national or regional companies.
"The first-place crown for Brigham Young, in Provo, Utah, comes as no surprise, given its consistently strong performance in previous Journal rankings," a Journal reporter wrote in Monday's edition of the newspaper. "Year in and year out, recruiters rave about graduates' maturity, competitive drive, integrity and international experience, especially from their missionary work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
The managing director of Banc of America Securities in New York told the Journal that BYU is increasing its emphasis on preparing students for investment banking and providing instruction that is more practical than theoretical.
"BYU students are hungry and aggressive but easy to work with," Steven Potter said. "They seem to have a greater desire to prove themselves and their school."
BYU finished second in ethics among all 86 schools in the three categories. The Journal asked recruiters which schools' graduates demonstrate strong ethical standards. Dartmouth got 180 nominations to 167 for BYU, which has about 100 fewer students. Yale University and the University of Notre Dame finished third and fourth.
BYU also made two other specialty lists. It ranked fourth in accounting, behind the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania and University of Texas. And BYU finished ninth in the number of nominations for corporate social responsibility, behind Yale, Cal-Berkeley and Dartmouth.
"This is a tremendous honor to be at the top of such a distinguished list of schools," BYU dean Ned Hill said in a press release. "We are grateful to the companies that return again and again to recruit our students. We're very proud of our graduates and the high professional and ethical standards they have become known for throughout the world."
Both BYU and Utah shared a major shortcoming in the eyes of recruiters — they lack diversity. Only 9 percent of students at BYU and 12 percent at the U. are minorities. Woman make up 20 percent of the students at BYU and 24 percent at the U. BYU students also were criticized for a lack of experience and for a bias toward regional jobs. The U. program suffers from a lack of national exposure, large class size and inconsistency, recruiters said.
However, recruiters were impressed by the leadership potential, maturity and integrity of BYU's graduates and the school's "great faculty."
Ranking criteria for the report was criticized by David Eccles School of Business spokeswoman Lindsay Allen, who said the measurements aren't a fair representation of what the U.'s school offers students.
"Although it's a reputable publication, it doesn't really measure the quality of our programs and our faculty," she said.
The difference, Allen said, is that the David Eccles School of Business provides more entrepreneurial opportunities, and break-out group projects, than traditional business schools. Corporate recruiter opinion, which makes up a good part of the Wall Street Journal report, usually bends toward traditional education backgrounds.
According to the report, recruiters did find that the most impressive features of the U.'s program were entrepreneurial, ambitious and down-to-earth graduates. The program's career-services office was deemed "outstanding."
"There's so many different outlets that our students can take that are not traditionally offered at other private or even public state universities," Allen said. "It provides a unique opportunity for our business students, but you can't really rank or measure that."
Last year, the Salt Lake City school ranked no. 32, and since then has launched several new projects within the school. The U. is also looking to construct a new nearly 190,000 square-foot building to house the growing business school's operations in the future.
"Our programs can't be matched," Allen said. "Instead of looking at what students make after graduating and the career part of it all, the (Wall Street Journal) numbers don't really reflect the educational outcome, which is what we tend to focus on — the educational experience and getting ready for that career."
Last year's first-place regional school dove out of the top 10. The Thunderbird School of Global Management dropped to 11th. One of a handful of schools listed twice, Thunderbird also dropped from fifth to 10th on the international schools' list.
The Journal reported that recruiters felt too many Thunderbird graduates lack work experience and that many of the school's international students have weak communications skills.
Three schools were added to the rankings this year and two — the University of Missouri and American University — leapfrogged the U.
Among U. MBAs, 87 percent have and accept job offers within three months of graduation. Their average annual base salary is $54,484. Among BYU grads, 96 percent accept job offers within three months. Their annual base salary averages $78,084.
Top employers for both schools include Ford Motor Co. and American Express.
E-MAIL: twalch@desnews.com