This post was written by Hatchet reporter Kelly Quinn.

The GW School of Business’s undergraduate program slipped seven spots to No. 66 in the annual ranking released Tuesday by Bloomberg Businessweek.

The rankings, which are weighed on nine measures including student satisfaction, job placement and academic quality, showed the school losing the most ground in surveys from corporate recruiters.

“I’m obviously concerned. Businessweek is a tough one because it’s quantitative, so small numbers make huge fluctuations. I don’t want to overreact to this though,” said Murat Tarimcilar, the business school’s vice dean of programs and education.

The school maintained a top-20 nod among schools who fed undergraduate students into top master’s programs.

This school’s ranking was its lowest in the seven years Businessweek has judged undergraduate programs. Tarimcilar added that the volatility of the rankings was frustrating, with the school starting at No. 41 in 2006 and fluctuating from year to year.

He said business school administrators would go to New York City to meet with Businessweek editors and examine more detailed data gathered from student and recruiter surveys.

Geoff Gloeckler, a staff editor at Businessweek who compiles the business school rankings, said the business school’s low student satisfaction, which sat at No. 96 this year, has been its undoing.

Students noted in surveys that communication with administrators fell short of expectations, Gloeckler said. This hurt the school, he said, “especially when you see these other schools where students are lauding how great the communication is.”

Students were also dissatisfied with the school’s academic advising, Gloeckler said.

The drop comes as business school administrators are planning an undergraduate curriculum overhaul, which business school Dean Doug Guthrie has said will favor ethics and social responsibility.

When he took over as dean two years ago, Guthrie said he said raising the school’s ranking was a top priority.

“[The Businessweek ranking] is a great justification to go through with this curriculum overhaul and strategic planning. I’m interested in an incentive for the faculty to look at the curriculum and program as a whole and question everything we do,” Tarimcilar said. “It’s not an alarming thing, but it’s something that tells us there’s some room where we can improve.”

Gloeckler said the curriculum revamp, especially one that stresses ethics, would likely prove beneficial to the University in the long run.

The business school also faced drops in graduate program rankings from U.S. News & World Report and The Financial Times this year. The Aspen Institute, which promotes social consciousness in business, ranked the business school graduate programs No. 11 in the world last year in promoting ethics and responsibility.

Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business earned the Bloomberg Businessweek’s top spot for the third year.

“There’s no denying that rankings play a role in students decisions. As shallow as rankings are, and it shows in terms of fluctuations with small data variations, it’s a reality of life,” Tarimcilar said. “We all have to live it.”

– Cory Weinberg contributed to this report