Shippensburg University named a Best Business School by The Princeton Review

Shippensburg University’s John L. Grove College of Business has once again been named as one of the nation’s most outstanding business schools, according to The Princeton Review^®.

The education services company chose Shippensburg University for its list, “Best Business Schools for 2021,” released December 8, 2020 and posted here.

Dean John Kooti was pleased to add this recognition to the College of Business’s many accolades.  “This award, in addition to our AACSB International accreditation which has been earned by only 26 business schools in PA, distinctly sets us apart from our regional competition,” Kooti said.

“We recommend Shippensburg University 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 school for its 2021 list based on data from the company’s surveys of students and 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 profiles each of the recognized schools based on academics, student life, admissions information, and graduates’ employment data. In Shippensburg’s profile, The Princeton Review editors describe Shippensburg University’s John L. Grove College of Business as, “one of the premier business schools in the Mid-Atlantic” and highlights the flexible delivery options that are a hallmark of the program. Students can choose from part-time and full-time programs, offered in-person in the evenings in Harrisburg and Shippensburg or entirely online. The Princeton Review points out that these options offer maximum “convenience and proximity that many of those who attend Shippensburg rank highest on their list of priorities.”

According to Dr. Robert Stephens, director of the MBA program at Shippensburg, “students can complete the degree in as little as one year, or they can spread their studies out to achieve their desired degree of work-life-learning balance.”

Comments from Shippensburg University students whom The Princeton Review surveyed indicate, “students are ‘accepting, caring, and helpful’ and range from fresh-out-of-school grads to veterans of the working world….Within class, people find a ‘very good camaraderie’ and fellow students that are ‘open-minded in group situations and supportive and collaborative’…Overall, students come here because ‘Shippensburg offers a great curriculum for the cost.”

The profiles also 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.  Among the ratings in the Shippensburg University profile are scores of 90 for both “Professors Accessible” and “Professors Interesting” categories. The “Professors Accessible” rating was based on answers to the question, “How accessible are your professors outside of the classroom?”. The “Professors Interesting” rating was based on answers to the question, “”Overall, how good are your professors as teachers?”.

According to Dr. Stephens, Shippensburg’s MBA is consistently rated extremely high in terms of faculty qualifications in other MBA program rankings. “We are very fortunate to have a highly trained, highly engaged and very dedicated faculty at Ship,” continued Stephens.

The Princeton Review does not rank the on-campus MBA programs overall, from 1 to 244, or name one business school best overall. All schools that participated in The Princeton Review Best Business Schools for 2021 survey project were considered for the lists. Schools that did not participate were not considered.

Shippensburg University has recently earned a wide array of accolades, including: