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SMG alums get top marks for career progress

Financial Times places school at #5 worldwide

February 7, 2006
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Catherine Ahlgren directs the Feld Career Center at SMG. Photo by Vernon Doucette

 

For its most recent ranking of MBA programs around the world, the Financial Times scrutinized 100 institutions in Africa, Australia, Asia, and North America and determined that when it comes to career progress, Boston University’s Graduate School of Management ranks first in the United States and fifth in the world.

In the rankings, released on January 30, the schools were assessed by alumni recommendations, job-placement success rates, and salary-percentage increases, among other factors. The career progress rating measured the extent “to which alumni have moved up the career ladder three years after graduating,” the FT writes, with changes in seniority and the size of the company of employment taken into consideration. The School of Management was ranked 28th in the overall and 50th in the world.

“This is a real-world validation of what we’re teaching,” says Catherine Ahlgren, the executive director of SMG’s Feld Career Center. “The number-one reason people cite for pursuing an MBA degree is career advancement, and recruiters tell us we’re uniquely preparing people with the skills and tools to make that happen.”

“That’s especially so in the school’s unique MS-MBA program,” adds Louis Lataif (SMG’61, Hon.’90), the dean of SMG. “It has truly propelled the school’s reputation with both students and corporations.”

Interest in MBA programs is growing again after a decline in the past three years — 211,010 people took the Graduate Management Admissions Test in 2005, a 3 percent increase over 2004 — and a 2003 survey by the Graduate Management Admissions Council reported that students in MBA programs were expecting a 56 percent salary increase upon completion of their degrees.

The FT report notes that three years after graduation, the average salary among alumni was $103,666 and that alumni experienced a 119 percent salary increase from the start of the MBA program to three years after completing it. The report also ranks the institutions on value in terms of cost, percentage of alumni employed after three months, and percentage of alumni who felt they had achieved their goals for an MBA program.

Click here for Boston University’s complete FT profile.

 


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