High praise from alums, along with an “extremely impressive” career placement record immediately following graduation, has earned the Joseph W. Luter, III School of Business a spot on Poets & Quants' Top Business Schools for 2026. The business education news outlet ranked Luter as 76th in the nation, making Luter the highest-ranked business school among all Virginia regional public universities.
The ranking, considered the most comprehensive national assessment of undergraduate business schools, is based on employment, academic, and admissions data, as well as alumni interviews.
Here’s a sampling of what alums told Poets & Quants about their experience at Luter:
- “This was an incredible experience for me and helped me grow exponentially in my professional career as I have used what I learned from that specific experience in my profession.”
- “I participated in a marketing and management study abroad that traveled through Europe. The experience gave me a broader perspective on global businesses and how different cultures operate within the corporate world.”
The survey praised Luter’s “extremely impressive” track record of its graduates securing full-time positions in a business-related field within three months of graduation.
“As a regional public university, we are proud to be ranked alongside some of the most prestigious, well-known business schools in the country,” said Dr. Anna W. Hickey, Dean of the Luter School of Business. “We are also honored by the recognition of the early-career success our graduates have. That recognition speaks to the intentional preparation we offer students through our coursework, mentorship, and hands-on experience.”
Luter ranked ahead of many nationally recognized programs, including American University, the University of Oregon, and Texas Tech. Luter is AACSB-accredited, an honor held by fewer than 6% of business schools worldwide.
In the rankings subcategory of “Academic Experience,” CNU ranked No. 35 nationally. Two Luter programs were singled out by alumni: the Signature Program and the Capstone Project. The Signature Program focuses on helping students develop the professional and personal soft skills necessary for success and career advancement, while the Capstone Project offers student teams the opportunity to simulate running real-world businesses.
Alumni had this to say about those two programs:
- “I was able to gain hands-on real-world projects that allowed me to be confident and capable in my abilities in the workplace because I had already experienced similar scenarios at business school.”
- “We were able to work with local small businesses, identify gaps in their marketing strategy and propose a meaningful marketing strategy with feasible tactics within the next year. Our project focuses ranged from digital marketing to product-focused marketing.”
- The Luter School features a Liberal Learning Core Curriculum that requires 40 semester hours of coursework from every student, in addition to 30 credit hours of pre-business preparatory work before being admitted as a business major.