Penn State's Smeal College of Business was ranked 10th among public business schools and 18th overall in this year's U.S. News & World Report rankings of undergraduate business programs.
The magazine, which also ranks specialty programs and majors within the school's business programs, ranked Smeal's supply chain management degree program fifth in the nation, the accounting program 21st and the marketing program 20th.
The college's finance program jumped five spots to 15th overall in the United States, and the management program went up one spot to place 11th.
Andrew Krebs, director of marketing and public relations for the Smeal College of Business, said prospective students scrutinize the rankings.
"It's always better to be ranked high than low because no matter what the school thinks of [the rankings], prospective students look at them when deciding where to go to college," he said.
According to the magazine, Smeal is ranked sixth among Big Ten universities' business programs, tied with the University of Minnesota.
"The Big Ten has a lot of really strong institutions," Krebs said. "We have some really top-notch peers in the conference."
Krebs said he does not expect the rankings to have a huge impact on the school.
"We're already one of the biggest business schools in the world in terms of undergraduate education," he said.
One benefit to having a highly ranked business school is the possibility of attracting higher-quality students, Krebs said.
Because students initially apply to Penn State before being admitted to Smeal, this benefits the university as a whole, he said.
"Higher-quality students may look at the rankings and say 'hey, I might apply to Penn State because of Smeal's reputation," he said.
"It's really as much a university benefit as a Smeal benefit."
Nick Johnston (junior-supply chain and information systems) said he thought the 10th overall ranking was fair.
"I know that it's a really good school and so far I've been impressed with it," he said.
"It seems to be well-established with very good professors and highly regarded by employers."
Overall, Penn State was ranked 48th out of 124 national universities -- ahead of Ohio State University (57) and the University of Pittsburgh (59), but behind the University of Michigan (25) and the University of Wisconsin (38).
Princeton University topped the rankings for the second consecutive year, followed by Harvard and Yale Universities.
The U.S. News & World Report rankings have attracted controversy in recent years, with some schools arguing that students rely too heavily on the rankings.
In a June meeting, the majority of 80 presidents from colleges in the Annapolis Group, an organization representing more than 100 liberal arts colleges, pledged not to participate in the rankings in the future.
Krebs warned against placing too much emphasis on rankings.
"There are a lot of other aspects of quality that can't be captured in publication's rankings, especially the U.S. News' ones," he said.
