The W. P. Carey School of Business is the business school of Arizona State University and is one of the largest business schools in the United States, with over 300 faculty, and more than 1,582 graduate and 15,077 undergraduate students. The school was named for William Polk Carey following his $50 million gift in 2003. In 2020, the W. P. Carey School was ranked 21st in the world for economics and business by Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities. In 2020, U.S. News & World Report ranked 30 W. P. Carey academic disciplines in the top 25.

Arizona State University is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is now one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the United States. It was one of about 180 "normal schools" founded in the late 19th century to train teachers for the rapidly growing public common schools. Some closed, but most steadily expanded their role and became state colleges in the early 20th century, then state universities in the late 20th century.