Looking Back on PCSB’s Groundbreaking Decade
What a decade it has been! Two of the most momentous achievements must be attaining AACSB accreditation in 2012 (and reaccreditation in 2018); and, of course, the completion of our beautiful home, the Ryan Center for Business Studies, in 2017.
Those milestones alone would be impressive, but the PCSB has grown and stretched in so many other ways. Here are a few of the highlights that we have achieved over the last decade:
- Increased the number of students in PCSB undergraduate majors by 96% (from 856 in 2009 to 1,678 in 2019)
- Increased the number of MBA students by 57%
- Increased the number of students of color in the PCSB majors by 161%
- The full-time PCSB faculty has grown by 20% during this period; while the total number of PCSB faculty members has increased by 52%
- Ranked #41 in Poets&Quants’ Undergraduate Business Schools Ranking, up from #63 in 2018, and a big improvement from #109 in Poets&Quants’ predecessor, Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Undergraduate Business School Ranking, in 2014
- Rose to #107 in the U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools list, up from #153 in 2017, the first year the PC MBA Program was ranked
- Doubled the number of student-run business clubs
But numbers only tell part of the story. This growth is the result of innovative programmatic changes developed over the past decade. These programs we may not think of as “new,” but they were established within just the last ten years:
- Ethics in Business Education, including its Michael Smith Regional Ethics Case Competition
- Finance Fast Track
- Marketing Minor & Marketing Fellows
- Risk Management Track
- Excel Certification for all business majors
- Bloomberg Terminal Certification for all finance majors
- Required internships for study abroad business students
Another trend you can see in the PCSB over the past decade is the growth in the opportunities for experiential learning, career exploration, and networking. A few of the initiatives that come to mind include:
- The Benjamin Family Social Media Fellowship
- The Student Management Investment Fund & the Student Managed Portfolio
- Friar Leadership & Immersion Program (FLIP) & First-Year Advising
- Integration of “real life” case consulting with the classroom
- The PC to Wall Street Speaker Series
- Dean’s Symposium speakers, including Brian Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (February 2015); Carolyn Woo, CEO, Catholic Relief Services (March 2016); Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP and presidential candidate (April 2018); and Tim Ryan, CEO, PwC (April 2019)
- Participation by over 70 students in a range of regional and national competitions, including: the CFA Global Research Challenge; the Katz Annual Berg Cup Competition; the AMA International Collegiate Case Competition; the OSU KeyBank UG Symposium; the Wall Street Journal Challenge; the Eller Ethics Case Competition, the HBS Global Case Competition, and the Deloitte AICC Case Competition
We would be remiss not to mention the PCSB’s significant investment of more than $200,000 to aid faculty recruiting, development, and scholarship. In addition, through generous gifts and the Dean’s Discretionary Fund, we have been able to implement:
- The Ruane Term Endowed Professorships, first established in 2012
- Subscription to Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS)
- Bloomberg Terminals
- The annual PCSB Faculty Research Summit
- Hosting visiting scholars
- The PCSB Writing Retreat for faculty working on research writing
