2012 MBA Job Placement Report
Wondering which MBA programs boast the best track record for MBA job placement? The results of Bloomberg Businessweek‘s recently released study of job placement rates among the top-30 U.S. business schools may surprise you.
With only a tiny fraction of 2012 graduates still out of work three months after graduation, the top spot goes to Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, which saw just 2 percent of students without job offers within that time frame.
UC Berkeley Haas School of Business ranks second, and I’m happy to see my alma mater Kellogg School of Management nab third place. Only 4 percent of Kellogg graduates had no job offers within three months of earning their degrees—a steady improvement over the 6 percent without an offer in 2011 and the 10 percent in 2010.
Top Ten Business Schools in 2012 for MBA Job Placement
1. Emory University: Goizueta Business School
2. University of California at Berkeley: Haas School of Business
3. Northwestern University: Kellogg School of Management
4. MIT Sloan School of Management
5. Columbia Business School
6. Rice University: Jones Graduate School of Business
7. University of Chicago Booth School of Business
8. Indiana University: Kelley School of Business
9. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton School
10. Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and Harvard Business School, tied
Several stellar programs make up the other end of the spectrum, which will no doubt come as a shock to many readers. In the bottom five, the study reports Yale School of Management is 25th, Stanford Graduate School of Business is 26th, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School at 27th, UM Ross School of Business at 28th, and Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business in 29th place.
The Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California came in last at no. 30. Twenty-three percent of USC business school graduates did not have a job offer within three months of earning their degree.
According to the business publication, consulting was the most popular industry, followed closely by financial services. Other hot industries for graduates this year were technology, consumer products, and energy.
Meanwhile, employers such as Boston Consulting Group, Amazon.com, and McKinsey were active on the recruiting scene, snapping up many of this year’s most promising MBA graduates and ranking as top employers on many business school campuses, Bloomberg Businessweek reveals.
Editors note that the job placement report refers to job offers received within three months. Though some may argue that jobs offered isn’t the same as job offers accepted, associate editor Louis Lavelle points out that at three months out, the percentage of offers and acceptances is virtually identical at every school. “There aren’t a whole lot of MBAs sitting around collecting offers all summer without jumping on one,” Lavelle says.
