Belmont University’s Jack C. Massey College of Business is one of the nation’s most outstanding business schools, according to The Princeton Review®. The education services company chose the school for its list, “Best Business Schools for 2021,” released in December 2020.
The Princeton Review website includes profiles with sections reporting on each school’s academics, student life, admissions information and graduates’ employment data. In its Belmont profile, The Princeton Review editors describe the school as a great value for Nashville-area professionals looking to jump-start their career. It says, “The professional MBA for working adults—Belmont’s flagship program—offers a ‘great classroom-based education that is flexible enough for a working student.’”
“The Jack C. Massey College of Business is very proud of this recognition by The Princeton Review because their ranking methodology includes the things that matter most to us, such as academic rigor, career/placement outcomes and student survey responses regarding the quality of the classroom experience, faculty teaching abilities and accessibility, and efforts by the career service office,” said Dr. Sarah Gardial, dean of the Massey College of Business. “We believe the significant industry experience of our faculty members shines through, as well as our dedication to a student-focused environment.”
Comments from surveyed Belmont students in the profile include: “The classes are focused on real world topics” and “the learning style is hands-on.” In the classroom, “the program is largely case-based, encouraging students to use critical thinking skills and sharpen interpersonal skills,” and across disciplines, “the professors encourage classroom discussion.”
Students also said faculty members “give great practical advice” and are “truly interested in helping students learn and grow.” At Belmont, classes are uniformly small, with about twenty students in the average classroom. Students love the mix of big-name resources and intimate atmosphere, saying “Belmont has the feel of a small school with the professors and reputation of a top university.”
As Dr. Gardial explained, the profiles have five ratings that The Princeton Review tallies based on data from its administrator and/or student survey. The ratings are scores on a scale of 60 to 99 in the categories of Academic Experience, Admissions Selectivity, Career, Professors Interesting and Professors Accessible. Among the ratings in the Belmont profile are scores of 96 for both Professors Interesting and Professors Accessible, as well as a score of 87 for Academic Experience.
“We recommend Belmont’s Jack C. Massey School of Business as an excellent choice for an aspiring MBA,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief. He noted that the company chose the schools for its 2021 list based on data from the company’s surveys of administrators at business schools during the 2019-20 academic year. The administrator survey, which numbered more than 200 questions, covered topics from academic offerings and admission requirements to data about currently enrolled students as well as graduates’ employment.
Franek added, “What makes our Best Business Schools list unique is that we factor in data from our surveys of students attending the schools about their campus and classroom experiences. For our 2021 list we tallied surveys of more than 17,800 students at 244 business schools.” The Princeton Review’s 80-question student survey asked students about their school’s academics, student body and campus life, as well as about themselves and their career plans. The student surveys were conducted during the 2019-20, 2018–19 and 2017–18 academic years.
Belmont’s Massey College of Business was also included as No. 20 on The Princeton Review’s Top Undergraduate and Graduate Schools for Entrepreneurship Studies for 2021, released in November. Learn more about this special ranking on Belmont News.
