Dean’s Welcome
Established in 1984, the Debbie and Jerry Ivy College of Business is making a name for itself — literally. Ours became the first named college at Iowa State University after the late Jerry Ivy (’53 industrial administration) and his wife, Debbie (’19 honorary alumna), made their historic $50 million gift to the college in 2017. We are committed to providing a high-quality education that prepares you for real-world experiences and successful employment. Our goal is to ensure our students are job-ready when they graduate.
To best serve our students and support their bright futures, we continuously assess and add programs to meet their needs and those of their future employers. Recent examples include undergraduate majors in healthcare management, human resource management, entrepreneurship, actuarial science, business analytics, and several master’s degrees. We also added a professional sales certificate for all students across campus, regardless of major. These new programs drive career opportunities for our students.
When you get to know us, you will see that we foster an environment for collaboration, entrepreneurship, innovation, global learning, and hands-on experiences. It’s part of our culture. We offer several programs to fuel the fire for students interested in these areas, including CyBIZ Lab, CYstarters, and the Startup Factory. You can read more about those programs on our Start Something page. We were the first public university in Iowa to offer an undergraduate major and only the eighth in the nation to offer a PhD in entrepreneurship. With these programs, students have a variety of experiential opportunities to choose from.
One thing that has not changed over the years is our attention to our students.
Ivy students have a lot of support from faculty and staff, including academic planning with advisors, career and internship planning with professional career coordinators, assistance with presentations and writing from a team of experts in the Writing and Speaking Center, and opportunities to join a learning community or one of many Ivy student organizations. The result of that support can be seen in our Employment Outcomes summary, where outcomes and average starting salaries are reported.
We experienced record enrollment over the past two years. Our numbers are up in all areas. This is the largest undergraduate and the largest graduate student enrollment in our history. This is evidence that people know and trust the value of a business education at Iowa State.
We continue to do well in national rankings, which you can read about on our rankings web page. I invite you to explore our website and learn more about the reasons why the Ivy College of Business is the best choice to earn a degree in business.
Raj Agnihotri
Iowa State University
Raisbeck Endowed Dean
Mary Warner Professor of Marketing
Debbie and Jerry Ivy College of Business