FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — While the Sam M. Walton College of Business moved to a tie for 24th place among the top public undergraduate business schools in the recent U.S. New & World Report rankings, it also had the greatest increase in reputation score among the more than 100 top schools listed in the report.

According to two Walton College faculty members -- Scot Burton, professor and Wal-Mart Chair in Marketing, and Tom Jensen, chair of the marketing and logistics department and Wal-Mart Lecturer in Retailing -- the college has tied for the strongest improvement in reputation score from 2000 to 2006. Burton and Jensen have examined rankings in U.S. News & World Report's “America's Best Colleges,” following the top-ranked schools and respective reputation scores for the past seven years.

Burton and Jensen’s analyses for private and public schools between 2000, when the Walton College first entered the rankings, and 2006 revealed that the Walton College went from a ranking of 67 to 40 for an increase of 27 places, and the reputation score increased from 3.0 to 3.3 (out of 5) for an increase of 0.3. The 0.3 change in the absolute reputation score ties the University of Arkansas Walton College with the Zicklin School of Business/Baruch College/City University of New York (CUNY), which is ranked 47th and also a public university, for the highest level of positive change among the 100-plus schools listed.

“The 2000-2006 timeframe closely follows the receipt of the $50 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation,” said Dan Worrell, dean of the Walton College. He added, “Interestingly, in the same time period as the Walton gift, CUNY-Baruch received a substantial gift from Lawrence and Carol Zicklin in 1998.”

The findings also put the Walton College in a strong group of business schools with increases in reputation scores of 0.2 or more in this time period including schools such as University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), New York University (Stern), and the University of Oklahoma (Price). Baruch had the largest increase in the rankings (up 30 places), and the Walton College is tied for second (up 27) on this measure with the University of Illinois-Chicago. In addition, the Walton College ranks the highest in the level of change in reputation score among Southeastern Conference schools.

In the 2001 U.S. News rankings, the Walton College made a dramatic rise from a tie for 48th place to a tie for 36th place in the top public undergraduate business schools. In the 2002 rankings, it moved back to 40th, but in the 2003 rankings, it made another dramatic leap to a tie for 28th place. The college remained at 28th place in the 2004 rankings, but moved into the top 50 among public and private business schools. In the 2005 rankings, the college reached 25th place. The U.S. News 2005 rankings moved the college from a tie for 46th place among both public and private undergraduate business schools to a tie for 41st place.

The rankings and reputations were determined through a U.S. News survey, which each year asks business school deans and senior faculty to rate the 480 public and private undergraduate business programs accredited by the AACSB International — the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

The Walton College is tied for 24th place this year with the following public undergraduate business schools: University of Pittsburgh, University of South Carolina (Moore), and Virginia Tech (Pamplin). The Walton College is also tied for 40th place among both public and private U.S. undergraduate business schools including private institutions such as Boston University, Tulane University (Freeman), and Syracuse University (Whitman).