FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Business Week has ranked the accounting specialty at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in a tie for 19^th place among the top public undergraduate business schools.

The accounting specialty ranked 35^th place among both private and public.

“We are very pleased with this first-time recognition from Business Week,” said Vernon Richardson, chair of the Walton College accounting department. “The high quality of faculty and students and the outstanding placement of our graduates have made this achievement possible. Also, the support of alumni and businesses has greatly contributed to the quality of our programs.” Richardson is also the holder of the S. Robson Walton Chair in Accounting.

As part of Business Week’s undergraduate business school survey, senior business majors were asked to grade their programs on a scale of 1 to 5 in 12 academic areas, including marketing, accounting, calculus, financial management and corporate strategy.

The top six public and private business school accounting specialties were at Boston College, Binghamton University, Georgetown University, Cornell University, University of Southern California and University of Texas.

Business Week ranked the overall undergraduate business program at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas at 43^rd among the top public undergraduate programs and 83^rd place among the top private and public business schools.

Business Week used five sources for its overall undergraduate rankings:

• A student survey
• A recruiter survey
• Median starting salaries for graduates
• The number of graduates admitted to the top 35 MBA programs
• And an academic quality measure that consists of SAT/ACT test scores for business majors, full-time faculty-student ratios in the business program, average class size in core business classes, the percentage of business majors with internships, and the number of hours students spend preparing for class each week. The information about test scores, faculty-student ratios and class sizes was provided by the school, and the data about internships and hours of preparation came from the student survey.

In the student survey, Walton College was given an ‘A’ in its facilities and service to students. It also received an ‘A’ in job placement, which is a tribute to the hard work of Walton College Career Development Center.

To be eligible for the Business Week survey, each school had to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business-AACSB International, the organization that accredits business schools worldwide, and exceed its cutoff for at least two of these three criteria: university-wide SAT and ACT scores, percentage of applicants accepted and percentage of students coming from the top 10 percent of their high school class. Business Week ranked 101 programs.

In August 2008, Walton College was ranked in a tie for 24^th among the nation’s public undergraduate business schools by U.S. News & World Report’s “2009 America’s Best Colleges.” The college was ranked 43^rd place among both public and private business schools. U.S. News & World Report surveyed business deans and senior faculty and ranked the schools on academic reputation.