Graduating with an undergraduate business degree isn’t as lucrative these days as it used to be, reports a recent BusinessWeek article “The Best B-Schools vs. the Recession.” While students used to graduate with two or three job offers with average starting salaries at $50,000, current graduates are much harder pressed to receive even a single job offer at a much lower salary.
Students are becoming dissatisfied with their undergraduate business degrees and the institutions from which they graduated. In January, only 38% of students who responded to a BW survey had a job offer, compared to last year’s 46% and the previous year’s 56%. Overall student satisfaction is down 14% from last year. Such negative outcomes have affected this year’s Bloomberg BusinessWeek annual ranking of undergraduate business programs.
Undergraduate business programs are working extremely hard to give a leg-up to their graduates in the job market, often turning to social media and other technology boosts. Virginia’s McIntire School uses Twitter and Facebook to distribute job opportunities and internships and to disseminate career tips. Notre Dame students are being encouraged to connect with alumni through different tech tools. Miami University in Oxford, Ohio now offers a course that provides practical hands-on training to students and exposure to potential employers. University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business has enhanced its interview prep resources.
UC Berkeley Haas has initiated an interesting program that has received extremely positive feedback—the Turn the Tables Fair. At this unusual job fair, students set up booths that market themselves as prospective employees to the company reps who walk around the fair to do their research.
Such initiatives have placed the mentioned schools in the higher ranking positions. Below you’ll see the top 20 ranked undergraduate business programs. Beside each program is the median starting salary.
|
1. |
$55,000 |
|
|
2. |
UVA McIntire |
$55,500 |
|
3. |
$62,000 |
|
|
4. |
$60,000 |
|
|
5. |
$55,000 |
|
|
6. |
$55,000 |
|
|
7. |
$53,000 |
|
|
8. |
$59,000 |
|
|
9. |
Boston College Carroll |
$55,000 |
|
10. |
Texas McCombs |
$54,000 |
|
11. |
Brigham Young Marriott |
$50,000 |
|
12. |
$59,800 |
|
|
13. |
Washington U. Olin |
$57,000 |
|
14. |
$55,000 |
|
|
15. |
U. of Richmond Robins |
$52,000 |
|
16. |
Miami U. Farmer |
$49,500 |
|
17. |
Babson |
$48,500 |
|
18. |
Wake Forest |
$50,000 |
|
19. |
$51,000 |
|
|
20. |
Villanova |
52,000 |
Click here for more information on the 2010 Undergraduate Business Program rankings.
Related Accepted.com Resources:
- The Rankings: An Accepted.com Special Report
- FT Global Rankings: Expansionist Dreamers
- Financial Times Global 2010 MBA Rankings
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
|
$55,000 |
|
|
2. UVA McIntire |
$55,500 |
|
3. MIT Sloan |
$62,000 |
|
$60,000 |
|
|
5. Cornell |
$55,000 |
|
$55,000 |
|
|
$53,000 |
|
|
$59,000 |
|
|
9. Boston College Carroll |
$55,000 |
|
10. Texas McCombs |
$54,000 |
|
11. Brigham Young Marriott |
$50,000 |
|
12. NYU Stern |
$59,800 |
|
13. Washington U. Olin |
$57,000 |
|
$55,000 |
|
|
15. U. of Richmond Robins |
$52,000 |
|
16. Miami U. Farmer |
$49,500 |
|
17. Babson |
$48,500 |
|
18. Wake Forest |
$50,000 |
|
19. Indiana Kelley |
$51,000 |
|
20. Villanova |
52,000 |
