UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Smeal College of Business residential MBA improved seven spots globally in the recently released The Economist 2019 Global MBA rankings and five spots in the 2019 Bloomberg Businessweek Best Business School rankings.

“This positive trend in our rankings is a reflection of the significant changes we’ve been making and continue to make to our resident MBA program,” said Michael Waldhier, admissions director of the Smeal MBA program. “It also serves as recognition of the quality and passion of our faculty, students and alumni.”

This marks the second year in a row where Smeal has improved in the Economist rankings, moving to No. 43 overall from No. 50 last year and 33rd in the United States.

Smeal earned stand-out placements in two categories, ranking No. 3 in faculty quality overall, and No. 4 in percentage of salary increase out of 100 other business schools.

Bloomberg Businessweek rankings, released Nov. 4, placed Smeal at No. 33 overall and No. 12 among public business schools. The list is based on data compiled from more than 9,000 students, 14,920 alumni, 900 corporate recruiters, and compensation and job-placement data from each school. 

In addition to the overall ranking, schools are separately ranked on four component indexes — compensation, networking, learning and entrepreneurship — providing students more ways to evaluate what schools have to offer them.

“For the past five years we’ve been innovating and improving our MBA programs and graduate portfolio,” Waldhier said. “We’ve added flexibility and customization options, built a stronger community, and enhanced connections among our programs and with the Penn State network.

“As a Smeal MBA alum, I’m extremely proud of what our faculty, students and alumni have been able to accomplish in just a few short years," he added.

More information about Smeal’s MBA Program and its portfolio of professional graduate programs can be found online.