ASU may have one of the nation's best graduate business programs, but its international business concentration pales in comparison to another Valley school.
Glendale's Thunderbird School of Global Management is ranked first on the list of masters of business administration programs for international business in U.S. News & World Report's recent rankings, while ASU's W. P. Carey School of Business MBA program failed to place in the specialization.
The rankings, established in 1983 and the oldest business-school ranking system in the country, is based on both expert opinion about the quality of the program and statistics that measure the quality of the school's faculty, research and students.
Though the Carey School's MBA program placed the highest overall among MBA programs in the Valley, Glendale's Thunderbird School of Global Management ranked No. 1 in the category for specialization of International Business for the 13th consecutive year.
"These rankings confirm the fact that Thunderbird continues to lead the way in global management education," said Ángel Cabrera, president of Thunderbird.
Gerry Keim, associate dean for MBA programs at the W. P. Carey School, said that though they aren't ranked in the top 20 in the international arena, ASU's program integrates international business studies in their courses like most other programs do.
"We are ranked in supply chain, accounting and management," Keim said. "People who just have that international focus have trouble in the job market."
Keim said the W. P. Carey MBA program places nearly 90 percent of their students in jobs by graduation.
According to the U.S. News & World Report, Thunderbird places nearly 35 percent of their students with jobs at graduation time.
But Thunderbird spokeswoman Carol Sunnucks said the employment statistics of their students in the report are incorrect and the actual percentage of job placement is significantly higher. She added that the school is sometimes unranked because of the international demographics of their students.
Sunnucks said 70 percent of students report receiving an offer within 90 days of graduation. More than half of that 70 percent accept an offer during the same timeframe.
Keim said it's peculiar that the top two programs in international business — Thunderbird School of Global Management and The University of South Carolina — weren't ranked in the top 50 MBA programs nationally, which could make students think twice about applying to these schools.
"For better or for worse, students place a lot of emphasis on the rankings," Keim said.
Reach the reporter at: ryan.calhoun@asu.edu.
