The Neeley School of Business did not make it as one of the top 50 regional business schools in a Wall Street Journal ranking this year because of a discrepancy in the university’s qualifications.The business school did not qualify this year because it did not graduate 50 MBA students, one of the criteria to be considered for the Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive Business School Survey, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Bill Cron, associate dean of graduate programs, said the business school did not meet it’s required number of MBA graduates because the graduating class entered when there was a downturn in the number of people in their mid-20s.

After three years of slow business, people didn’t want to leave their jobs to enter a full-time MBA program, Cron said.

The business school was ranked No. 11 last year, but Cron said the business school would not qualify for this year’s ranking since the graduate class size decreased from 55 to 40.

“It was a trade off between, ‘Do we want to bring in the right people versus do we want to make the Wall Street Journal ranking?'” Cron said. “It would have been extremely shortsighted to try to make 50 people because eventually we would be penalized by it.”

Cron said because of the rankings in Forbes Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, and Hispanic Magazine, he’s worried even less about dropping out of the Journal’s top 50.

“Now that we’re in these other rankings, we should have broken through some of the clutter so that we have a position of strength that we can work with,” Cron said.

Matt Rettke, a senior finance and entrepreneurial management major, said he did not think the business school ranking would affect the future employer’s decision of hiring TCU students.

“Our caliber of education is still high,” Rettke said. “They know this as well.”

“I still think our programs and facilities are exceptional,” he said.

Ben Grimes, a senior e-business and supply chain major, said even though it feels great to be ranked nationally, not being ranked does not have a huge impact on him.

“Being a student, I know about the quality of TCU,” Grimes said.

Grimes said the rankings should not affect the prospect of job opportunities for students because lots of employees already have a close relationship with TCU.

According to the Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive Business School Survey, Dartmouth College topped the national ranking and Brigham Young University topped the regional rankings. Within Texas, the University of Texas at Austin, Southern Methodist University and Texas A&M University ranked 19, 22 and 23, respectively.