The Carlson School of Management’s Master of Business Administration programs dropped slightly in the recent U.S. News & World Report rankings of master’s programs.

Still, the programs remained among the magazine’s best-ranked in the country. The part-time MBA program was ranked the highest, breaking into the top ten. The full-time MBA program ranked 26th and the executive MBA program ranked 16th.

“We’ve been doing a lot of things to enhance the services to students,” said Cyndy Hanson, a spokeswoman for the Carlson School.

Some of the Carlson School’s bright spots in the rankings came in its emphasis programs. The management information systems program maintained its fifth-place ranking, and the health services administration program also placed fifth.

However, many of the programs dropped from their previous evaluations.

For instance, the full-time MBA program dropped two spots from 24th in 2002. The health services administration program slid from fourth to fifth.

Mixed results have been more of the norm than the exception for Carlson School. The Financial Times lowered Carlson’s MBA ranking from 61st in 2001 to 71st in 2002. But the publication ranked Carlson’s executive MBA program 29th-best in the world for 2002.

Carlson School Dean Larry Benveniste said the program’s ranking slipped because national recruiting success is used to evaluate programs, and the Carlson School does not attract as many corporate recruiters as other schools. He said many Carlson School graduates take jobs in the Twin Cities.

Still, Hanson said the school is working to gain more national attention with programs like Carlson Enterprises, which allows students to run University-owned businesses.

“We always want to do better, but we are satisfied with the rankings,” Hanson said.

Nathan Halverson welcomes comments at [email protected]