NC State Jenkins Supply Chain No. 15 in 15 Years

By Christine Ferrell

The following is re-posted from the NC State Poole College of Management’s Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) blog, authored by Professor Robert Handfield.

A new Gartner 2014 Top US Supply Chain MBA Program Rankings report of top supply chain MBA programs within the United States came out yesterday – with the NC State Jenkins MBA and the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative making the list for the first time ever! NC State came in at #15, not only breaking into the list, but also achieving a very respectable ranking. This is great news, considering that NC State’s business program is only 20 years old, and its supply chain program even younger (the SCRC was founded in early 2000). NC State was also listed as one of the “biggest upper movers” since the report was last published. The highest ranking our full time MBA Supply Chain program had ever received was #63 (Bloomberg Business Week) and #65 (US News & World Report).

The report notes a number of major trends that they see in the winning schools:

• The broadening of supply chain curricula to reflect the reality of today’s supply chain organizations. This most certainly applies to NC State. Our program engages our 20 top corporate partners to develop projects across a wide variety of different areas, including market intelligence, logistics, inventory, value stream mapping, cost management, supply management, transportation, performance metrics, and others (see Project Breakdown,)
• The exposure of more students to internships and co-ops, and more applied project work —often for sponsoring companies — on-site and in the classroom. Well – we certainly blew that criteria out of the water! At the conclusion of the Spring 2014 semester, the SCRC will have sponsored 503 graduate and undergraduate project teams, involving 1797 students and 55 industry partners since being established in 2000. During the 2013 – 2014 academic year, the SCRC deployed 56 graduate and undergraduate practicum teams working with business & industry partners (29 Fall 2013 / 27 Spring 2014).
• Dramatic increases in enrollment across the board, and new supply chain degree programs being established. We have seen an increasing number of top level students come into both our MBA and undergraduate programs. We have more new fellows and partner companies than ever before, and the numbers are growing.
• Top students from top programs can command a 50% premium over the average and, in many programs, new supply chain graduates handily out-earn finance and accounting-focused M.B.A.s. Ditto for NC State….our MBA graduates from our SCM program had starting salaries this year of $82,300, topping marketing and finance starting salaries handily…40% of our MBA student body now are in the supply chain concentration. 90% had internships their second year.

By the way, the Gartner 2014 Top US Supply Chain Undergraduate Rankings also came out two weeks ago and NC State made that list as well…coming in at a respectable #24. The report noted that this was also a first time ranking for the undergraduate program.

I am very proud of our faculty and course instructors for the incredible job they have done – but watch out for next year….we’re going for the top 10!

Read more about the NC State SCRC.