By Theresa Schliep and Cate Carrejo

Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business (GSB) broke the top 30 in Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Best Undergraduate Business Schools 2016” list. This ranking is an 11 spot improvement from the 2015 list, in which GSB was ranked No. 38.

Villanova University’s Villanova School of Business received a ranking of No. 1, followed by Boston College’s Carroll School of Business at No. 3, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business at No. 17 and Fairfield University’s Dolan School of Business at No. 43.

Donna Rapaccioli, dean of the Gabelli School of Business, was pleased with Fordham’s improvement.

“It represents a growing national recognition of our faculty and administration’s dedication and our students’ success,” she said in a statement. “It was affirming to see that we were strong in all four areas that constitute the ranking: the student and employer surveys, internship score, and starting salary.”

Students were receptive to the positive change, citing its potential to bring more competitive students into the university.

“I think it’s kind of tough to rank [business schools], but I guess it’s good that we improved a lot,” said Alex Zamora, GSB ‘18. “The more competitive the school is, the better.”

Bloomberg based their ranking on four criteria.

First, they surveyed employers who hired recent graduates on how the schools prepared their employees. The employer survey accounted for 40 percent of the total ranking score.

They also surveyed students on their own ratings of the campus, career services and faculty and administrators, accounting for 35 percent.

Finally, Bloomberg Businessweek used the starting salary of recently employed students and the percentage of students who held at least one internship during college. That accounted for 15 percent and 10 percent of the total ranking score, respectively.

GSB’s employer survey rank was No. 30, student survey rank No. 31, salary rank No. 20 and internship rank No. 32. GSB’s Bloomberg Businessweek ranking has steadily improved in the last four years, from its 2012 ranking of No. 49, 2013 ranking of No. 40 and 2014 ranking of No. 38.

GSB is not the only school to ascend in its ranking. “The fact that Villanova moved up 23 spots to number one angers me,” said Robert Hamilton, GSB ’18. “I would like to see what contributes more to the ranking, why they moved up 23 spots, why we only moved up 11 spots.”

These shifts in ranking correlate with changes in the methodology used to rank the schools. The 2014 rankings included academic quality in determining a school’s ranking. Academic quality accounted for 30 percent of the total ranking score in 2014. However, the 2016 list does not include academic quality in its methodology.

– Amanda Maile contributed reporting.