The Financial Engineer Times has ranked the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business program one of the top 50 MBA programs in the country.
The University's program was ranked 45th overall out of the 237 programs evaluated in its survey.
"We’re a small program that is focused on giving people a really good understanding of the practice of
The assessment conducted by the TFE Times looks at factors like GMAT scores, undergraduate grade point averages and acceptance rates, according to the website.
Harris said this "set of criteria" the publication looks at when assessing the schools is impressive.
"A lot of schools do GMAT scores and that gives you an idea of how bright [they are] and the quality of the students that come in," Harris said. "But we’re looking at things, very importantly, like how much are these people making when they get out."
The MBA program at Auburn University is trying to give students both "competence and confidence" in their ability to lead other people, according to Harris.
"We call it the MBA plus, so they get the MBA plus something else to try to set them apart," Harris said. "We’ve got things like interesting concentrations, we’ve got dual degrees, we’ve got for our campus program and we’ve got a leadership program."
Harris said the campus program is small but the college is expanding its numbers. This year, 42 students were admitted to the school, but the goal is to have between 50 and 55 students admitted to the program, according to Harris.
"We're looking for quality candidates regardless of where they come from," Harris said. "We like candidates with work experience, but it's not absolutely required.
Harris said the school is looking for ways to expand the program. One way they are looking to expand is to make it possible for engineering students to come in for a more accelerated version of the MBA program, according to Harris. This partnership with engineering may be possible as early as fall semester 2017, according to Harris.
Harris said one thing that sets Auburn University's MBA program apart is their emphasis on leadership. Recently, the program implemented a workshop on leadership, according to Harris. Students get a "very deep" understanding of various leadership activities and how to make their leadership skills work in different environments, according to Harris.
Another part of the program that Harris said was "unique" to the school is the use of an online program. The classes taught on campus are being videotaped for online students to watch, according to Harris. These online students will come in to work with campus students toward the end of the program in a big project, according to Harris.
"We've got [online students] in many of the states coming in, so their network gets to be pretty big pretty quickly, with this online program overlayed on what the campus students are experiencing," Harris said.
Harris said part of what students experience in the MBA program here that they will not get at any other program is the "Auburn way," which is the school's emphasis on the Auburn Creed.
"I think our program just does a solid job of giving people that sense of why it's important to be a part of a group that stand for something bigger than itself," Harris said.
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