The Kogod School of Business was ranked No. 42 by the 2004 Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey of the top 50 business schools in the country after finishing as a runner-up last year.
"I was happy for all the people - faculty, students, and staff - who have worked hard to achieve this goal," Dean Myron Roomkin said. "This validates all of our efforts and the confidence the administration has had in the school."
While AU's business school was founded in 1955, it was only recently recognized as one of the finer M.B.A. programs in the United States. It was renamed Kogod in 1979 after alumnus Robert Kogod, who worked in the D.C. area with a development, construction, leasing and management company and served as an AU trustee, The Eagle previously reported.
The school first received publicity in 2000 when it was listed by BusinessWeek as one of the top business schools in the country. Since then, Kogod has been noted by U.S. News and World Report, BusinessWeek and, most recently, the Wall Street Journal.
"Kogod seems to be an incredibly engaging and knowledgeable school," said freshman business major Nick Realmuto. "The knowledge that Kogod was being recognized as one of the top business schools in the country is one of the reasons that I came."
Despite Kogod's new reputation, critics of the school maintain there is still much that can be done before the business program can consider itself among the elite.
"It's a step in the right direction, but we still can improve and bring this college up in the rankings," said Richard Vitale, a double major in Business Administration and Economics. "They still need more permanent faculty and to encourage staff development. If they do that then they can attract more skilled people to work here."
Dean Roomkin also said there is room for improvement.
"This year Kogod made the top 50, ranking 42," Roomkin said. "The rankings are based on a three-year average and we have been getting better each year. Kogod ... practices continuous improvement in all aspects of the school. This philosophy has helped get us to where we are today and it is also what will help take us to the next level."
The Wall Street Journal report gathers information from 2,200 recruiters and the rankings themselves were based on 26 separate attributes. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania was ranked first in the survey.
Kogod, however, does have the distinction of being No. 1 in a critical category. It is the only school in D.C. area to be recognized by the survey.
"This report just proves my judgment was correct in choosing American," Realmuto said.
