Indiana State University's Master of Business Administration program has earned a spot on two national rankings.
For the 10th consecutive year, the school's MBA program made the Princeton Review's list. Among the program's benefits highlighted are small classes that allow students to receive "individual attention that better prepares the students in a hands-on manner," while also allowing for greater faculty accessibility.
"It's quite an honor," Jeff Harper, director of graduate programs for the College of Business, said in a statement. "The first time we were ranked in 2005 was a thrill for us, and it continues to be very exciting. As our program has matured and our expectations have increased, we now expect to be ranked and receive this honor every year, but there is no less work involved and nothing is assured. For us to have shown the kind of consistency it takes to be ranked 10 years consecutively is very special."
The academic test preparation and admissions counseling company included Indiana State's MBA program in "The Best 296 Business Schools," the 2015 edition of its annual guidebook after analyzing institutional data and reviewing student surveys from the past three academic years.
"We're really pleased to continue to be recognized as one of the best MBA programs in the country, but I'm not surprised because we put in extra effort to make our program distinctive," Brien Smith, dean of the university's Scott College of Business. "(Jeff Harper) makes sure the MBA program offers students a lot of hands-on experiences -- internships, field trips and jobs - that will benefit them professionally, and we feel that we are doing the right things to differentiate ourselves from other programs. A ranking like this is external validation that we're doing the right things."
The business school also made the Inaugural Financial Engineer's MBA program ranking for 2015.
"We're ranked with some very good institutions, and we didn't know we were going to make the (Financial Engineer's) ranking, so we were pleasantly surprised when they called us," Harper said.
As the university's professional MBA program has grown by nearly 200 percent, Harper said the campus program has grown by more than 20 percent in the last few years and there is a continual search for opportunities to expand graduate education offerings.