After receiving a $50 million endowment in January, the W. P. Carey School of Business has more reason to celebrate.
The Master of Business Administration supply chain management program ranked No. 5 in the nation and the undergraduate program is No. 3, according to U.S. News and World Report's guides to college and graduate schools.
It was the first time the magazine ranked supply chain graduate programs while the undergraduate program jumped six spots from a No. 9 ranking last year.
Joseph Carter, chair of the supply chain management program, said the department now has its eye on the No. 1 spot.
"We have 24 full-time faculty dedicated to teaching and research," he said. "They take the cutting edge research we are doing and drive it back to the classroom. The reason we are ranked high is because we are putting out the best graduates anywhere else in world."
Carter added that the rankings will make students look more appealing to recruiters and benefit the reputation of the University as a whole.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University preceded the MBA programs in the rankings. Michigan State and MIT placed first and second in the undergraduate supply chain programs.
"For our program to be ranked alongside those universities is just a great honor," Carter said. "It is a testament to dedication of the faculty and their effort. They are world-class."
Arnold Maltz, an associate professor in the supply chain department, said the rankings are advantageous and will likely go up as a result of the $50 million donation from W. P. Carey.
"The rankings are very helpful to us in terms of attracting good students and industry support," he added.
Maltz said although the rankings are beneficial, it is not his main concern as a professor.
"We don't think about the rankings all the time," he said. "We tend to focus on doing as well as we can in the classroom and in building the best relationship we can with research and industry."
Other ASU business programs ranked by U.S. News and World Report included information systems (No. 17), accounting (No. 20) and part-time MBA (No. 22).
The ASU business school overall placed No. 27. UA ranked No. 49 overall.
Carter added that the business school's success "did not just happen overnight" and was a "team effort."
"Today let's be better than we were yesterday, and tomorrow let's be better than we are today," Carter said.
Reach the reporter at lynh.bui@asu.edu.
