Newswise — For the fourth year in a row, the UCI Paul Merage School of Business undergraduate program is ranked among the top 50 programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, this year coming in at No. 31 in the Best Business Programs rankings released today.  Among public schools, the Merage School undergraduate program ranked No. 20. 

“We are proud of the rigorous undergraduate program that we offer and happy to see that it is being recognized again in this ranking and in the community,” said VC Choudhary, associate dean of Undergraduate Programs at the Merage School. “Our applications this year reached an all-time high of over 11,000 for the approximately 400 seats in the program.  This level of demand from highly accomplished students speaks volumes about the reputation of our programs.” 

“We continue to deliver the highest quality undergraduate business education experience possible--an experience associated elite business schools around the globe,” said Eric Spangenberg, dean of The Paul Merage School of Business. “In all of our degree programs, as we implement curricular changes designed to train nascent business leaders to effectively embrace the continuing evolution of digital technologies, I fully expect our ascent in the rankings to continue.” 

“We are extremely proud that our program continues to climb in the US News rankings. Our rapid ascent can be attributed to the extraordinary demand for the program, the quality of the students that make the Merage School their first choice, and the vast ethnic diversity that exists within our faculty, staff and students,” said Denise Patrick, assistant dean of Undergraduate Programs. 

Established in fall 2008, the Merage School undergraduate business program is the youngest business program among the top 50 included in the U.S. News rankings.  Since its inception, the Merage School has graduated six cohorts of undergraduate students and has ranked among the top 50 schools since its inaugural listing in 2014.  

Each year, U.S. News ranks undergraduate business programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business; the results are based solely on surveys of B-school deans and senior faculty.  Participants were asked to rate the quality of business programs with which they’re familiar on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished): 38.4 percent of those canvassed responded to the most recent survey conducted in the spring of 2017.  Two years of data were used to calculate the peer assessment score.  The full rankings report and methodology is available at www.usnews.com/colleges.   

About The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine

The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine offers four dynamic MBA programs – plus PhD, specialty masters and undergraduate business degrees – that graduate world-ready business leaders with the exceptional ability to grow their organizations through strategic innovation, analytical decision-making, information technology and collaborative execution. While the Merage School is relatively young, it has quickly grown to rank consistently among the top five percent of all business programs worldwide through exceptional student recruitment, world-class faculty, a strong alumni network and close relationships with both individual business executives and global corporations. Additional information is available at merage.uci.edu.

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