The University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business is one of 15 graduate schools of business named to The Princeton Review's "Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools" in the category of Operations Management appearing in the April 2009 issue of Entrepreneur, the nation's leading publication for and about entrepreneurs.  

Created and compiled by The Princeton Review, the "Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools" are reported in six categories. The six categories are: Accounting, Finance, General Management, Global Management, Marketing, and Operations.  Each list names the 15 graduate schools of business that were most highly rated by students evaluating their MBA program's preparation in specific categories. 

The business schools appear in alphabetical order on the lists, and are not ranked 1 to 15.  In addition to appearing in the magazine, the lists are posted at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges.

The Princeton Review compiled the lists using data from its national survey of 19,000 MBA students attending 296 business schools profiled in its book, Best 296 Business Schools: 2009 Edition published October 2008.   The 80-question survey asked students to report on classroom and campus experiences at their schools and rate their MBA programs in several areas.  The Princeton Review tallied the "Student Opinion Honors" lists based on students' assessments of how well (on a five-point scale) they felt their business school courses had prepared them to succeed in each of the six areas.  

Said Robert Franek, VP-Publisher, Princeton Review, "For nearly 20 years, our company has gathered student opinions about colleges, law and b-schools to give applicants feedback they can't find elsewhere: what the schools' own customers think of them.  We salute the business schools on these lists for the outstanding job they are doing both academically and professionally in preparing their students to apply their MBA training beyond the classroom to successful job searches and productive careers.  We know this will be particularly meaningful to applicants and MBA grads in these challenging economic times."

This is the first time the David Eccles School of Business has been named in the Princeton Review ranking for Operations.  The department chair for Operations and Information Systems, Don Wardell said, “The ranking is a result of the School’s faculty translating strong, cutting-edge research into a dynamic classroom experience for our MBA students.”

At the David Eccles School of Business, Operations is part of the Department of Operations and Information Systems (OIS).  Masters level courses in Operations are part of the requirements for the MBA and Professional MBA Programs, and include core courses in operations management, data analysis and decision making, as well as electives in supply chain management, operations strategy, service operations management, project management, simulation, practical management science, quality management and Six Sigma.  Currently the department also offers several undergraduate level courses in Operations and plans are underway to offer Operations as a major area of study by 2010, pending university approval.  

The Operations faculty members are Glen Schmidt, Jeff Stratman, Sriram Thirumalai, Weiyu Tsai, Don Wardell, Taylor Randall and Tariq Mughal.

About the DavidEcclesSchool of Business

With emphasis on interdisciplinary education and experiential learning, the David Eccles School of Business has programs in entrepreneurship, technology innovation and venture capital management. It launched the country’s largest student-run venture capital fund with $18.3 million, and is part of the University of Utah's commercialization process that is ranked second in the country by the Association of University Technology Officers (following MIT) at taking university-generated technology to market. 

Founded in 1917 in Salt Lake City, the school later established the first accredited MBA program in the Intermountain West.  Some 3,500 students are enrolled in its undergraduate, graduate and executive degree programs as well as joint MBA programs in architecture, law and health administration. 

About The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com)

The Princeton Review is an education services company known for its test-prep courses, education programs, admission services, and 165 books published by Random House. Among them are "Best 296 Business Schools" and "Best 174 Law Schools" – each of which includes 11 ranking lists of the top 10 schools in the books in various categories based on institutional data and student surveys.  The company also publishes "Best 168 Medical Schools" and "Best 368 Colleges," plus guides for college and graduate school admission exams and other resource books. The Princeton Review is not affiliated with PrincetonUniversity and it is not a magazine.

Dr. Don Wardell
Professor of Operations

Dr. Glen Schmidt
Professor of Operations

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