The Kogod School of Business at American University ranks No. 29 among private universities and No. 72 overall in the U.S. News & World Report Best Undergraduate Business Programs rankings released today. Kogod's 22-place rise over the past two years was the largest of any private university in the top 100. Kogod also ranks No. 7 in the nation for international business, a top-10 finish for the seventh consecutive year.

Understanding the U.S. News & World Report Methodology

The U.S. News & World Report undergraduate business rankings are based entirely on surveys of deans and senior faculty at accredited business schools across the country, who rate program quality on a scale of one to five. The methodology measures academic reputation and peer recognition.

"Kogod has strategically invested in AI, sustainability, and entrepreneurship, and that investment is paying dividends." said Casey Evans, interim dean of the Kogod School of Business. "Our peers see it in our faculty's scholarship and in the students and alumni we send into the world. Two years of gains tell us the momentum at Kogod is visible from the outside."

The undergraduate U.S. News ranking is the latest indicator of momentum at Kogod. Last week, Kogod reached No. 33 in Bloomberg Businessweek's Best B-Schools ranking, its highest on record, and in April the full-time MBA reached No. 46 in U.S. News, the highest in the school's history. Poets&Quants has named Kogod a Top 10 Business School to Watch two years running.

Top 10 for International Business, Seven Years Running

The No. 7 ranking for international business, Kogod's seventh straight year in the top 10 and its second straight year at No. 7, recognizes the BS in Business, Language & Culture, a degree that pairs a full business education with cultural fluency and language skills, and requires every student to study abroad. Students put those skills to work in a city where the World Bank, the IMF, and more than 170 embassies are a Metro ride from campus, and where the internship options run from a foreign ministry to a Fortune 500 headquarters.

The whole university shares the outlook: in the same U.S. News rankings, American University is No. 7 in the nation for study abroad and No. 19 for co-ops and internships. Eighty-seven percent of Kogod students complete an internship before they graduate, with the majority completing three or more. New this year, every AU undergraduate has access to a $4,500 resource for a funded internship or research experience, beginning in sophomore year. The university's goal is to raise internship participation to 95 percent within five years.

The Undergraduate Experience

Kogod students take business courses from day one, in classes capped at 35, in a rebuilt core curriculum that grounds them in professionalism, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. Kogod now offers seven majors and recently launched a sports management specialization in the BS in Business & Entertainment, a program Billboard has named a Top Music Business School three years running.

Since 2023, Kogod has incorporated AI throughout its graduate and undergraduate curriculum, an initiative Poets&Quants called "the most consequential AI transformation in business education." The number of courses that integrate AI grew from 40 to 142, the school hired six faculty in AI and machine learning and launched the Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence, and new degrees followed: the BS in Business Analytics & AI, an AI minor open to students across the university, and a BS in Marketing built for a field AI is remaking. Bloomberg Businessweek has called Kogod the first AI-first business school.

Entrepreneurship at Kogod is taught as a habit rather than a career track: every student learns to spot an opportunity, test it, and act on it, whether they are starting a company or walking into a first job. Students who want to go further have access to American University's Veloric Center for Entrepreneurship, and Princeton Review and Entrepreneur rank Kogod in the top 10 nationally among schools under 10,000 students for entrepreneurship. Sustainability runs through the curriculum as well: the school ranks No. 3 in the nation for its Green MBA by both the Princeton Review and Corporate Knights, and has won the Page Prize for its sustainability curriculum.

"This ranking recognizes what happens in our classrooms," said Tara Fisher, Kogod's interim assistant dean of undergraduate programs. "It means a great deal to see that work recognized by our peers."