New U.S. News Rankings Include Penn State Behrend MBA Program

New rankings from U.S. News & World Report list the master’s degree in business administration at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, among the nation’s top graduate programs. Penn State’s online MBA program, which is administered by Penn State Behrend through the university’s World Campus, is listed as well, ranked among the top 20 online programs.

U.S. News based the rankings on expert assessments and a variety of statistical measures, including standardized test scores of newly enrolled students. More than 1,350 graduate programs in a variety of disciplines were evaluated.

The focus on graduate programs reflects an area of growth in today’s business world: The number of occupations assigned to the master’s degree level is expected to increase by 21.7 percent through 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The value of a graduate degree has risen significantly over the years,” said Balaji Rajagopalan, director of the Sam and Irene Black School of Business. “This recognition is reaffirmation of the quality of our faculty and curriculum, which our graduates have known for a long time.”

The Sam and Irene Black School of Business at Penn State Behrend offers its MBA program in Erie and in a blended format – both in-class and online – at the Regional Learning Alliance in Cranberry. The program has been ranked among the nation’s best for six consecutive years by the Princeton Review, which issues its own rankings each fall. The 2013 review called the program “the best value for a working student in the local area.”

The Sam and Irene Black School of Business also offers an online master’s in project management and a master’s in manufacturing management – a collaboration with the college’s School of Engineering.