Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is ranked second in New England and 14th in the nation for online graduate business education in U.S. News & World Report's Best Online Education Program rankings, released today.
U.S. News collected survey data from 213 accredited institutions that granted master's degrees in business, including public, private, and for-profit institutions.
The data was analyzed and scored on several criteria, including the areas of student engagement, admissions selectivity, peer reputation, faculty credentials and training, and student services and technology. The only other New England institution ranked higher than WPI is the University of Connecticut, at No. 8.
"Innovation in the distance education space has been accelerating rapidly in recent years--reflecting significant advances in teaching, learning technology, internet-based access to knowledge resources, and alternative business models," said Mark Rice, dean of WPI's School of Business. "WPI has been a leader in distance education for almost two decades. In the past several years, the School of Business has made significant progress in converting to a blended-delivery model--both for our traditional full- and part-time students, and also for mid-career, high-potential working professionals."
To compute the Best Online Business Programs rankings, the weighted results of a reputation survey and responses to a statistical questionnaire were linked to different possible achievable point values, which were then summed into overall scores for each eligible school. The highest overall score a school could possibly achieve if it performed strongest in every single ranking indicator was 100.
Numerical rankings were determined by sorting the programs' weighted overall scores in descending order, with the highest scoring school ranked No. 1.
The highest score was awarded to Washington State University, with 73. UConn garnered 65.9, while WPI had a score of 64.5.
This is the latest accolade for WPI's School of Business. The Princeton Review said WPI's School of Business "is one of the best institutions a student could attend to earn an MBA," in its Best 296 Business Schools: 2013 edition.
WPI's part-time MBA program was ranked No.1 in the Northeast, and No. 8 in the United States by Businessweek.
