Webster University’s George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology, recently made the Military Times “Best for Vets” ranking of business schools for veterans in 2014.
Webster ranked 27 out of 140 business schools that offer graduate-level degrees. Webster was also included in the “Best for Vets: Colleges 2014” rankings last November.
Webster’s Student Veterans Organization President Charlie Mach said schools that are military friendly and have veteran’s affairs personnel on-campus can be beneficial to veterans.
“Some vets who have never been to college will be jumping right into it,” Mach said. “They will be amongst a younger crowd, but hanging out with other vets or peers around their age and have had their same experiences they will be able to open up and feel more comfortable.”
Military Times education and employment writer, George Altman, works with the survey data that determines the rankings. He said information used to rank schools completing the surveys is taken from both the best college and business school surveys, as well as, information from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Criteria in the school surveys include elements such as, tuition costs, academic policies, support programs offered, and campus leadership positions filled by veterans.
“It’s important to me personally, and I think to us as an organization. It matters to me on a personal level that what we are putting out there is not just a list to make a list to sell magazines and get people’s attention,” Altman said. “But, that it is actually reliable and that a veteran can use it and end up doing better for having used it.”
Altman said they work to make the surveys and standards a “little better each year” to ensure they are current with the needs of veterans’ and with what schools are providing. He said they have surveyed veteran students in the past and one element stood out.
“If there was one thing more important than anything else to vets in that survey, it was having a vet center on campus,” Altman said. “It surprised me how important that was.”
Associate Vice President for Military Affairs and Government Programs, Brig. Gen. Mike Callan, said Webster has been serving the military since 1974 and has almost 8000 military related students and 39 military campuses. The Office of Military Affairs opened in early 2013 and works to answer any questions military related students have.
“I think it’s terrific. It’s just one more piece of the larger pie that Webster provides,” Callan said. “We talk about how we are military friendly in so many ways and, in this case, the business schools polices in the way we offer business material in graduate courses to our military population from coast to coast, including online…is just one more way of proving it.”
Military Times is owned by the Garnett Company, Inc., and consist of several publications, such as Military Times EDGE, Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times and Navy Times. “Best for Vets” is a series of projects designed to rank elements relating to veterans. Some of the different surveys include, employers, education and law enforcement agencies.
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