USM Online MBA Program Included in Fortune’s Inaugural Rankings

Mon, 05/03/2021 - 03:31pm | By: Van Arnold

The University of Southern Mississippi’s online Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) program is included among the nation’s best in the inaugural rankings recently released by Fortune. USM ranks No. 56 out of the 104 schools listed.

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, many MBA classrooms moved from physical to virtual. While the end of the pandemic will bring back the classroom for some students, other MBA seekers still prefer online options. Through conversations and surveys of prospective students and current business leaders, Fortune concluded that online MBA education will only get bigger. Thus, the publication built its first-ever ranking of the nation’s Best Online MBAs.

The USM program is administered through the College of Business and Economic Development. Mrs. Heather Sison, MBA director, says that USM’s inclusion in the new rankings validates the efforts being made by faculty and students in the program. A total of 126 students were enrolled in USM’s online MBA program this spring.

“We are excited for the Southern Miss MBA program to be included in Fortune's first-ever ranking of the nation's best online MBA programs,” said Sison. “We are honored to be No. 56 out of the 104 online MBA programs across the country that were ranked this year. This recognition confirms the quality education provided by our faculty and the success of our alumni.”

Fortune invited more than 200 online MBA programs to participate in the rankings. In all, 104 programs completed the comprehensive questionnaire. That information, along with data collected from companies and executives, was used as the core of the publication’s rankings. The final rankings are made up of four components: Program Score, Fortune 1000 Score, Brand Score, and Prestige Score.

To learn more about the online MBA program at USM, call 601.266.4659 or visit: https://www.usm.edu/business/index.php