A Message from Dean Deborah Merrill-Sands
SOM ranked #1 in New England and 18th nationally for its Entrepreneurship Initiative!
Wonderful news! Entrepreneur magazine, in its upcoming October edition, will recognize the SOM as one of the top schools in the United States for entrepreneurs. In a survey with The Princeton Review of more than 700 colleges and universities, our entrepreneurship program was ranked 18th nationally and 1st in New England -- ahead of Babson College and Boston University -- for graduate entrepreneurship success. This ranking comes on the heels of Fortune Small Business naming the SOM as one of the top 10 innovative programs in entrepreneurship nationally.
These rankings will be instrumental in attracting top quality students and to building the national visibility and reputation of our School of Management. They are a testament to the quality of our MBA program. And, they position us to the world as an excellent management school designed specifically for women.
Achieving this top-tier ranking demonstrates the power of strategic focus, priority-setting, mobilization of resources and talent, and sheer tenacity. Four years ago, we began with a vision to build an outstanding, practically-oriented, entrepreneurship program at the SOM. Last year, you may remember that one of our annual giving priorities included the Entrepreneurship Initiative. In addition to the generosity of hundreds our alumnae who responded to the call for annual support, I would like to recognize the fact that our vision became a reality quickly as we received major gift support from:
• Stephen and Carolyn McCandless for the Elizabeth J. McCandless Chair in Entrepreneurship
• Gretchen Fox for scholarships and operational funds to build the new initiative
• Lois Silverman for championing and funding the business plan competition
• Coleman Foundation Award for Entrepreneurship Excellence in Teaching Colleges
• Hancock Foundation and The Commonwealth Institute for fellowships and externships for women of color
• Citizens Bank for our Leading Women Entrepreneurs conference series.
These significant investments, as well as annual fund gifts, have allowed us to hire top quality faculty, develop innovative curriculum, attract high potential students, conduct and publish research in top-rated journals, build strategic partnerships, and mobilize the expertise and experience of our alumnae and partners in the business community. These are the building block of successful programs and successful schools.
I am grateful to the many people who are developing, investing, and executing our vision for entrepreneurship at the SOM. I want to recognize the more than 100 alumnae and SOM friends who have mentored our students and business plan competitors, provided externships, visited the classroom, and advised our progress. In addition, there is the cumulative efforts of more than 35 SOM and Simmons College faculty, staff, and senior managers who worked together to make all of this happen. Much credit here goes to Professors Jill Kickul and Fiona Wilson for leading us in the design and delivery of our innovative MBA Certificate program in entrepreneurship. Now with Dr. Teresa Nelson as our new Elizabeth J. McCandless Professor of Entrepreneurship, I am sure that we will continue to grow our new venture and expand our reach and potential to serve students and community.
In addition to our rankings in entrepreneurship, the School of Management and Simmons College have recently received several other top rankings:
• The SOM was recently ranked #3 among management schools for its attention to Corporate Social Responsibility. The ranking is based on a student survey sponsored by Net Impact, a national organization for MBA students committed to “growing and strengthening a network of new leaders who are using the power of business to make a positive net social, environmental, and economic impact.” The SOM tied with Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and was ranked higher than other top-rated business schools at universities such as such as Yale, Northwestern, Boston College, Cornell, UC Berkeley, and University of Michigan.
• Simmons College was named one of the nation’s 50 top colleges for African Americans in the September 2006 issue of “Black Enterprise.” More than 1,400 four-year colleges and universities whose black student enrollment is above 3% were reviewed by a group of 500 African American higher education professionals including college presidents, chancellors and directors of student affairs.
• Simmons College was named a “Best College” in its category in the 2007 U.S. News & World Report rankings of “America’s Top Colleges.” Simmons also is named in the 2007 Princeton Review “Best 361 Colleges,” an honor held by only 15% of the four-year undergraduate colleges in America.
Posted on July 18, 2006 5:06 PM
