Freeman School of Business


The A. B. Freeman School of Business is the business school of Tulane University, located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The school offers undergraduate programs, a full-time MBA program and other master's programs, doctoral programs, and many executive education programs. It was a charter member of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business in 1916.
The school is known in the finance community as the publisher of Burkenroad Reports, and is regularly ranked among the top schools in finance. Additionally, Entrepreneur Magazine has ranked the Freeman School among the top twenty schools for entrepreneurship; giving the school a ranking of No. 4 in 2009. In 2018, the Freeman School's MBA program was ranked 46th in the nation by Bloomberg Businessweek and the undergraduate program was ranked 44th by U.S. News & World Report.
The school's main location, in the center of Tulane's Uptown New Orleans campus, is across a pedestrian thoroughfare from the university's student center. The school was named in honor of A. B. Freeman, a former chairman of the Louisiana Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and a prominent New Orleans philanthropist.

History

In 1914, Tulane University's business school was founded as the College of Commerce and Business Administration. Two years later, the school became one of the fourteen founding members of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business, the nation’s leading accrediting body for business schools. In 1940, the school began offering the Master of Business Administration program. The Doctor of Philosophy program began in 1976, and the Executive MBA program began in 1983.
In 1986, the school moved from Norman Mayer Memorial Hall, one of the oldest buildings on Tulane's campus to Goldring/Woldenberg Hall. In 2018, renovation on an addition to the building was completed, making it the Goldring/Woldenberg Business Complex.

Academic Programs

Degrees

The school offers a Bachelor of Science in Management degree, as well as numerous graduate degrees, including: Master of Business Administration in , and formats, , , , , , and .

Double-degree Programs

Double-degree offerings include, but are not limited to, the BSM/Master of Accounting, BSM/MBA, , MBA/MD, MBA/JD, MBA/MPH, and MBA/MA.

Signature Programs

Burkenroad Reports

provides stock analyses of small- to mid-size companies throughout the Texas to Florida region of the United States. Many of these companies would otherwise not be covered by bulge bracket financial firms; consequently, the reports provide unique information that investors rely on, which helps the followed companies gain access to capital. Students are the primary authors of the reports, and they get the opportunity to visit the followed companies and interview top management. This process allows students to gain practical and marketable stock analysis skills, as well as insight into strategic management. The Burkenroad Reports program celebrated its 25th year in 2018.

Darwin Fenner Student Managed Fund

In the Darwin Fenner Student Managed Fund course, students actively manage more than $5.8 million of 's endowment in three separate equity portfolios – and regularly beat the benchmark indexes. Students are empowered to manage real risk with real money by studying respected academic research and learning sophisticated methods for analyzing stocks while managing a mid-cap or a small-cap portfolio. Students utilize the software and databases used by professional fund managers, including Bloomberg Terminals, ThomsonOne.com, Standard & Poor's Net Advantage, and Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ.

Aaron Selber, Jr. Courses on Distressed Debt and Hedge Funds

strive to introduce students to areas of investments that are typically mentioned only in passing in most finance programs. The alternative investment space has grown dramatically in the last two decades, offering possible career paths for the student interested in finance. In the Selber courses, students dedicate an entire semester to learning about distressed debt or hedge funds. Students can apply to take one or both courses, which complement topics in the traditional long-only equity or investment grade bond world.

Global Leadership Program

As part of their international-business concentration, all Freeman MBAs complete on conducting business in Latin America, Europe and Asia. Each module includes a trip to the region being reviewed, where classes are taught at local business schools and students get the opportunity to visit local businesses. Recent visits took place in Paris, Beijing, Monterrey, and Buenos Aires. Schools visited have included ITAM, Tsinghua University and EGADE.

Trading room

The Freeman School's trading room has ninety-eight flat-screen computer monitors, televisions to provide news coverage, and a stock ticker monitor. All the desks have access to Bloomberg and Reuters financial databases. The trading room is meant to resemble spaces that can be found usually at banks and brokerage houses.

Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Part of the Freeman School, the seeks to provide entrepreneurial-minded students with opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills inside and outside of the classroom. As such, the program connects students with entrepreneurial professors and full-time entrepreneurs in a wide variety of fields. Donations and other charitable entities have resulted in a great number of monetary-award-winning opportunities for Freeman students with entrepreneurial ideas. Because of the center's resources—including the ability to offer $200,000 annually in merit-based scholarships and an annual business-plan competition with a prize of $50,000—Tulane consistently ranks among the top 20 universities for entrepreneurship by Entrepreneur Magazine.
The Lepage Center brings together scholars, inventors, investors and students to solve problems and build businesses. These programs provide direct support for Tulanians, New Orleanians and communities across the Gulf South. The Center was renamed in 2015, following a generous donation from the Albert Lepage Foundation. Albert Lepage was a 1971 MBA graduate of the Freeman School.

Tulane Energy Institute

The fosters student interest and expertise in the energy industry, propelling graduates into top positions in one of the world’s most dynamic fields. Our students access the cutting-edge work being done at a broad spectrum of energy companies, as well as companies that serve the industry, enhancing employment opportunities for graduates. The Tulane Energy Institute supports the degree program, a 10-month program that provides a comprehensive perspective on the energy industry, from oil and gas to electric and renewable energy.

Campus

The Freeman School's main building, the Goldring/Woldenberg Business Complex, sits in the center of Tulane's Uptown New Orleans campus, which is located on St. Charles Avenue, across from Audubon Park. The GWBC houses the undergraduate and graduate business programs and features a trading room.
In 2019, the Freeman School opened the Stewart Center CBD, a new facility in downtown New Orleans for executive and international programs.

Current Faculty


Rankings

Several news publications, including the Financial Times, Forbes, América Economía and the U.S. News & World Report, regularly rank the Freeman School among the top 50 business schools in the nation. Individually, the Finance department has been ranked among the top 10 in the world by the Financial Times on several occasions. Also, Entrepreneur Magazine has consistently ranked Freeman among the top 20 schools for entrepreneurship.
The Freeman School's Finance department was ranked 6th in the world by the Financial Times in 2005, and 10th in 2008.
U.S. News & World Report ranked the MBA program 73rd in 2017.
Financial Times ranked the MBA program 35th in the U.S. in 2010 and 46th in 2008
Entrepreneur Magazine ranked the MBA program 4th in 2009, 17th in 2008, and 13th in 2006
AméricaEconomía magazine ranked the MBA program 24th in 2008 and 22nd in 2006
Fortune magazine's list of the Top 50 B-Schools for Getting Hired ranked the MBA program ranked 39th in February 2007
Undergraduate business program ranked 43rd by U.S. News & World Report in September 2008. The Executive MBA program ranked 6th in Latin America by AméricaEconomía magazine in August 2006.
In 2013, Tulane University reported that admissions figures for the business school had been falsified from 2007 to 2011, including increasing the average GMAT scores of students and the number of completed applications.