'U.S. News' rates Wharton best undergrad biz school

The Wharton School's undergraduate business program was ranked first in the nation in U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking, on sale today. Tied with the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor for first place, Wharton also led the rankings last year -- the first year U.S. News judged undergraduate business programs. Wharton tied for first place with the University of California at Berkeley last year. Despite Wharton's success, the University dropped two places from last year in the overall rankings, falling to the 13th slot in this year's U.S. News annual college survey. Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity said the survey results prove Wharton is "the leader in business education." "We are committed to being the best at every level and across every major discipline," Gerrity added. Wharton placed in the top five in eight out of 10 individual department categories. The school placed first in both finance and marketing. Wharton dropped from last year's first place ranking in real estate, to second behind the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Despite this slip, Wharton ranked in the top three for its entrepreneurship, general management, international and quantitative analysis departments. Wharton's academic departments appear in the survey's top five more frequently than any of the 49 other rated institutions. "This is certainly good news. It's always nice to get this sort of recognition," said Wharton Undergraduate Dean Richard Herring. Herring added that Wharton's language proficiency requirement and international exchange programs enable the school to combine a liberal arts education into its business curriculum. "Looking at the list, we really have an integrated four-year program that embeds a business education and trains students to be leaders," Herring said. The rankings, which rate the 50 top undergraduate business programs in the nation, are based on surveys of business school deans and undergraduate business program directors. The business schools surveyed were all accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. Penn is the only Ivy League institution with an undergraduate business school.