Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management & Technology is an outstanding business school, according to The Princeton Review.  The New York-based education services company features the school in the just-published 2009 edition of its “Best 296 Business Schools.”

To identify the best business programs, The Princeton Review surveyed 19,000 students attending the 296 business schools profiled in the publication. The publication does not rank the schools on a single hierarchical list from 1 to 296, or name one business school best overall, according to the editors.

In the profile on the Lally School, editors noted that the Lally School MBA program “combines technological innovation and a focus on entrepreneurship in a team-oriented curriculum that cuts across all business functions.” Students enrolled in the MBA program also appreciate being in an “entrepreneurship program friendly to those with technical backgrounds.”

“The Lally School is proud to be recognized among the best business schools in the nation,” said David Gautschi, dean of the Lally School. “Our mantra is that technology creation and commercialization do not occur in an ivory tower, not on only one side of the market for capital; they happen in a competitive, increasingly global marketplace for ideas and for capital. Our students and faculty have a passion for taking ideas and turning them into real-world products – both in start-up ventures and in going concerns. This recognition demonstrates that the Lally School competes with the very best business schools in the world.”

“We select schools for this book based on our high regard for their academic programs and offerings, institutional data we collect from the schools, and the candid opinions of students attending them who rate and report on their campus experiences at the schools,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review vice president of publishing. “We are pleased to recommend the Lally School to readers of our book and users of our Web site as one of the best institutions they could attend to earn an MBA.” 

Recently, the Lally School launched the M.S. in Technology Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (TC&E), in collaboration with Albany Law School, as well as the M.S. in Financial Engineering and Risk Analytics (FERA), in collaboration with four other departments of Rensselaer. Students in the TC&E program come mainly from Rensselaer’s undergraduate programs in management, biomedical engineering, materials science, architecture, computer science, cognitive science, and design, innovation, and society. Students also pursue an advanced curriculum that combines work in their respective technical areas with business management.

Upon completion of at least 30 graduate credits, students have the option of taking their new technologies to market as start-up entrepreneurs, pursuing Albany Law’s M.S. degree in Legal Studies — Concentration in Technology Transfer, or working for 12 months in a technology-related industry and then returning to Rensselaer for another year to earn an MBA.

The FERA program prepares students from computer science, physics, mathematics, decision sciences, and engineering disciplines for careers that are in high demand in financial institutions and central banks and in risk management positions in corporations around the world.  Members of Lally’s Advisory Council have been instrumental in opening doors to players in the financial services industry to support this new track, added Gautschi.

In addition, the Pathfinder MBA program is a plan of study designed to help science and engineering graduates gain an early competitive advantage in the world of business. The students enrolled in the program are recent graduates of undergraduate programs in areas including engineering, science, math, and computer science. In year one, students complete the regular course requirements for the first year of the MBA program.  In year two, they complete a co-op in a technology-oriented company in the United States or abroad.  In year three, they return for their final year of the MBA program.

A few years ago, the Lally School introduced a new MBA curriculum that identified critical areas for advancing business through innovation and mimics real-world decision making.  The curriculum is based on “streams of knowledge” and modeled after one of the school’s signature courses, Developing Innovative Products and Services, in which student teams develop a new product or service, write a business and marketing plan, and learn how to market and sell it.

Gautschi noted that participation in such courses provides students with a strong background in analytical reasoning, interpersonal skills, and an understanding of how to use technology to their competitive advantage when making business decisions. Students also understand and learn the importance of social responsibility, and how to seek out the ethical and social implications of their business choices.

“The ranking our students give the program signals to us that we have improved,” Gautschi said. “Our goal is to continue to improve by cultivating closer ties with industry partners in the United States and abroad, and by continuing to develop innovative new programs to attract prospective students.”

To view the 2009 Princeton Review rankings, go to: www.PrincetonReview.com. 

About Rensselaer’s Lally School
Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management & Technology was founded in 1963 as an integral part of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the nation’s oldest degree-granting technological university. Building on Rensselaer’s heritage of more than 175 years of leadership in science and engineering, the Lally School is dedicated to advancing business through innovation. The Lally School’s curriculum is designed to produce leaders who combine creative passion with the ability to integrate technology across business functions. The faculty emphasizes the value of hands-on experience available through campus resources such as the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and the nation’s first on-campus business incubator. Rensselaer’s Lally School offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs in management, doctoral programs in management and technology, an Executive MBA program, and a joint Sino-U.S. MBA for companies operating in China. For more information on the Lally School, go to www.lallyschool.rpi.edu.