Washington U reports 92% placement rate for MBA grads
A few years ago, an MBA degree seemed like an instant ticket to riches. The typical graduating MBA would deluged with job offers, complete with signing bonuses and other nice perks. That, however, was before the Wall Street meltdown. Now, BusinessWeek reports:
Though it’s no surprise with the economy still on life support and national unemployment numbers still on the rise, MBA students have found themselves facing what schools say is the worst hiring season they’ve ever seen.
According to the latest data reported to BusinessWeek, 16.5% of job-seeking students from the top 30 MBA programs did not get even one offer by the time schools collected their final fall employment data three months after graduation. Last year that was true of just 5% of students.
Washington University is an exception. Its Olin School of Business reported a 92 percent job-placement rate, the second-highest among the schools ranked by BusinessWeek. The magazine asks Mark Brostoff, director of Olin’s career center, why his school did so well:
Rather than holding on to their hopes of working on Wall Street, Brostoff advised students to look at their other skill sets, because “that Holy Grail’s not there this year.” At Olin last year, 28% of students with jobs found them in the financial services industry. This year, just 14% went that route. Instead, 31% went into the booming pharmaceutical, biotech, and health-care industries, up from 18% last year.
A slideshow accompanying the article says that the average Olin MBA grad got a starting salary of $90,000 this year, up from $88,000 in 2007.
(5 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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David Nicklaus has covered St. Louis business for more than 25 years. His column appears three days a week on the Post-Dispatch business page. 
They’ll need a job to pay for the inflated tuition of an overrated university.
Yes, let us all join in the trashing of St. Louis’s only nationally-recognized university. This will really accomplish a lot.
I am an MBA graduate from Wash U. I think the credit should go to the amazing student who worked their ass off to network and get a job in this economy with no help from the school whatsoever. It’s so unfair that these career center folks who have no clue take the credit. Sooner the school realizes this, better it is for everyone around.
P.S. I have a job. i just kinda feel bad for the students.
Thank you Steve for saying something that a lot of Wash U grads are thinking. I too graduated with an MBA from Wash U and I too did all of my own networking, resume review, had my wife help with mock interviews, etc. The career center is a total joke - mostly it just collects data from the hard-working students that find their own jobs.
This is why Wash U can’t crack into the top tier of B Schools. Despite their great academics and placement rates, their alumni give back at some of the lowest rates among top schools - I’ve never given them any money. Maybe Wash U will read these posts and figure out that abandoning its students during the job search process is no way to garner loyalty.
MASTER BURGER ASSISTANT flipper.
Forget it, just get a degree, and try working and proving yourself in the real world, rather than the world of books. Experience is the key, not multi degrees,
Interesting artivle. I’m a prospective MBA student taking a hard look at Webster, UMSL and SLU. I’m not quite up to Wash U standards but would love to hear any opinions anyone has on the reputation of Webster’s MBA both locally and nationally. Having trouble finding any un-biased information. Thanks.
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I’d rank Webster’s program third out of the three you listed. SLU and UMSL are both accredited, while Webster is not. UMSL provides a great value, while SLU is more helpful with regards to connections.
Steve,
I agree with you totally. The Career Center at my school is useless when it comes to resume critiquing and job referrals. The only suggestions they seem to have are grammatical (important, but I can have anyone proofread).
It really falls on the student to impress their professors, they’re usually the ones with the real referral opportunities.
What isn’t mentioned in these statistics are the fortunate group of students who are able to participate in tuition reimbursement/payment plans through their employer. The employer pays most if not all of the lofty price of tuition, and well, the student is then already “placed.”
All business schools will tell you they are accredited. Yet, you want to attend a school that is AACSB accredited. Period.
AACSB accredited schools in the St. Louis region:
Saint Louis University
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
University of Missouri- St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
You may be able to complete programs at other schools faster. However, the above schools provide QUALITY.
https://www.aacsb.net/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=AACSB&WebKey=00E50DA9-8BB0-4A32-B7F7-0A92E98DF5C6