WWU Business Students Excel on National Exit Exam

Seniors in the Walla Walla University (WWU) School of Business scored in the 96th percentile on the Major Field Test in Business (MFT) in 2015. This year, approximately 69,000 senior business students from 563 business schools across the nation took the test. A score in the 96th percentile means 96 percent of business students taking the MFT scored lower than WWU business students.

“What these MFT scores show is that our business program is for students that are serious about their career and are ready to compete at a high level,” says Josefer Montes, School of Business professor and dean. “Our boutique approach to our program, the small class size, one-on-one interaction with the professors and the real-life hands-on projects all give our students a distinctive learning opportunity.”

The MFT is administered by the Educational Testing Service, which is same the organization that administers the Graduate Record Exam and other exit exams for college seniors. The MFT takes two hours to complete and tests senior business students on how much they know about important business subjects including accounting, economics, finance, management, marketing, business law, quantitative analysis, information systems and international business.

Since 1992, senior business students at WWU have scored in the top 12th percentile on the MFT. In 2013, they scored in the 91st percentile and in 2014 the 92nd percentile.

The WWU School of Business has seen a steady increase in the number of students enrolled in its program since 2012. From the 2014–15 to 2015–16 school years alone, the school experienced a rise of 19 students in business majors.

Providing opportunities for students to learn how to work as part of a team is one particular area of focus for the school. “Business today is collaborative. If you can’t learn to work in a team, it’s extremely hard to be successful in business,” says Montes.

Amanda Eldevik, a 2015 graduate from the WWU School of Business, says, “The things I learned, I now apply in the workplace — how to communicate, how to work with others and how to effectively lay out ideas while combining them with other ones. Without group projects, my learning experience would have been completely different. I learned so much about myself and about others in many different ways. What you learn in your group and with your group is as equally important as everything else being taught to you.”

Learn more about the WWU School of Business at wallawalla.edu/business.

Featured in: December 2015

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