Although the Hough Graduate School of Business was recently ranked by Forbes as a top national business school, students and faculty still see room for improvement.
Forbes put together the list of the top MBA programs in the U.S. earlier this month, and UF’s graduate business program is ranked at No. 63 out of 70.
Brian Gendreau, a professor with the Hough program, said it is difficult to form an opinion based on Forbes’ ranking. He said although the school needs to improve its ranking with Forbes, it is doing a lot of things right.
“Florida’s business school programs are very rich. We attract high-quality faculty and high-quality students,” he said.
According to the Forbes website, Hough alumni have an average of 87 percent employment after graduation, a median base salary of $75,000 and a median signing bonus of $10,000.
Out of all the schools Randa Medley applied and was accepted to, she chose UF because of its reputation for academics and is thrilled with the ranking.
Medley, a 20-year-old UF graduate student in international business, said although UF didn’t make the top 10, she thinks the ranking could still help her land a better job in an extremely competitive job market.
“It makes me feel proud to be a student here and that I have the opportunity I’ve been given to study here,” she said. “The ranking shows me that I’m getting a quality education.”
Craig Petrus, the director of graduate business career services at Hough, said he hopes for the school to partner with more Fortune 500 companies located nationally in order to raise the ranking.
“I think that any time the Hough business program is ranked nationally with other elite business schools, it is a good thing for the program,” Petrus said.
A version of this story ran on page 4 on 10/16/2013 under the headline "Locals: Forbes ranking means school should get down to business"
