U.S. News & World Report on Monday gave the Carlson School of Management’s full-time master’s of business administration program its highest rating in school history.

The magazine ranked the school 21st, up from 26th last year.

“We’re not surprised because it’s a reflection of how we’re improving,” Carlson School Dean Larry Benveniste said.

He said the ranking is a good indication that the school is moving in the right direction, but should not be misinterpreted.

“We do not run our school targeting rankings. We have fundamental goals and aspirations we work toward,” he said.

Although the program has gained considerable ground since it ranked 30th in 2001, Benveniste said gaining national attention as a highly ranked school is not an overnight process.

Richard Folkers, spokesman for U.S. News & World Report, said 185 accredited business schools nationwide provided enough data to be ranked.

The rankings take many things into account, including surveying Carlson School officials such as the dean.

Folkers said asking officials to evaluate themselves does not skew the results.

“We know that when we send the surveys, they are going to rank themselves the highest.”

But Folkers said other aspects of the ranking balance any possible embellishments.

He said criteria include job placement success, starting salary of graduates, surveys of recruiting companies and standardized test scores of accepted students.

Stefanie Lenway, associate dean of the business school’s M.B.A. program, said the celebration did not last long.

“We celebrated for about 10 minutes and we were already working for next year,” she said.

She said for the school to improve next year, the college needs to heighten its national profile.

“We are excellent,” she said. “We just don’t think of ourselves that way. We think of how much more we could be doing instead of how much we’ve done.”

Folkers said U.S. News & World Report does not compare a school’s performance with previous years.

“This is not a horse race,” Folkers said. “(Students) shouldn’t use the rankings to pick a school based on the number it’s ranked.”

The rankings reflect many aspects of the college, Folkers said.

He said students should rely on the information accompanying the rankings to find the school that fits them best.

The Carlson School’s part-time M.B.A. program was ranked 11th.

The business school’s academic programs were ranked separately. Information systems ranked fourth, marketing ranked 22nd, management ranked 21st and operations ranked 22nd.