Washington University's Olin School of Business is ranked 26th among the best U.S. B-schools by Poets&Quants.

41. Washington University in St. Louis

Olin Business School

Campus Box 1133
1 Brookings Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63130
Academics: 314-935-7301 or 888-622-5115
Email: mba@wustl.edu
Website: http://www.olin.wustl.edu/mba/
Apply Online: http://www.olin.wustl.edu/academicprograms/MBA/admissions/Pages/default.aspx

Admission Deadlines for Class of 2014:
Round One: 10/1/11
Round Two: 11/15/12
Round Three: 1/4/12
Round Four: 2/15/12
Round Five: 4/1/12
Rolling admissions after April 1

“Research-driven thinking, applied”  is the operating principle for the Olin Business School two-year MBA Program. Research-driven thinking is a way of approaching business problems or issues with the same rigorously analytical mind set used to conduct research.

The Olin MBA curriculum offers a comprehensive set of required and elective courses built upon a foundation of critical-thinking and leadership skills. The degree requires completion of 66 credit hours, nearly two-thirds of which are elective courses selected by the individual student, allowing Olin MBAs to shape the curriculum to fit their own objectives.

The fall semester of year one focuses on critical thinking, leadership, career strategy, and the major functional areas of business. During the spring semester of year one, and throughout year two, students take mostly elective courses, often following the guidelines of concentration areas that help students navigate the curriculum toward career goals. Elective courses include semester-long (3-credit) courses, six-week “mini” (1.5-credit) courses, and experiential learning opportunities. Olin MBAs can also take up to nine credits of approved course work from other graduate programs at Washington University.

Latest Up-To-Date MBA Rankings:

Poets&Quants (2011): 41
BusinessWeek (2010): 40
Forbes (2011): 47
U.S. News & World Report (2011): 20
Financial Times (2011): Not Ranked
The Economist (2011): 42 (Global), 27 (U.S.)

Ranking Analysis:

The Olin School’s MBA program in St. Louis is known to have a highly collaborative culture of caring teachers and small class sizes. But it plunged in this year’s ranking, taking one of the largest dives of all 100 schools ranked by Poets&Quants. Olin dropped 15 places to a rank of 41^st from 26^th a year ago.

The fall was largely due to weak showings in three separate rankings this year: Olin, ranked 49^th globally by The Financial Times, fell entirely off the newspaper’s 2011 list. The school also dropped six places to 47^th in Forbes’ ranking which measures return-on-investment. And it slipped one place in U.S. News’ ranking to 20^th from 19^th in 2010. The only positive news on the rankings front this year was a slight improvement in the least important of the five major lists: The Economist ranked Olin 42nd globally, up three spots from a 45th place finish in 2010.

All of this follows Olin’s precipitous drop in last year’s BusinessWeek ranking to 40^th from 28^th.  MBA grads were particularly unhappy with the quality of the career services function back then—a much tougher year in the job market. One graduate who was highly pleased with the Olin MBA experience but disappointed with career options told BusinessWeek the career services group were “unable to connect current students with employers or even alumni. Their solution to a lack of a robust system for applying to jobs or connecting with alumni is to refer students to LinkedIn or Facebook. The career center is, without a doubt, the worst part of Olin.”

The 2010 BusinessWeek drop, though a year old, is especially troubling. Here’s why: The 12-place plunge was largely the result of significantly lower scores in the magazine’s corporate recruiter ranking where Olin placed a disastrously 55th. The school’s student ranking is suspect at 28th, given the considerable amount of criticism graduates threw back at the school. As one Olin graduate put it: “The administration’s head-in-the-cloud outlook on life is frustrating–they focus their efforts, not on student satisfaction or career metrics, but on ‘The Rankings.’ If it didn’t effect ‘The Rankings,’ it could wait. We (2nd year students) also got a pep talk on ‘The Rankings’ and how we should ‘approach’ them.”

MBA Program Consideration Set:

Stretch Schools: Indiana, USC, Georgetown
Match Schools: Minnesota, Notre Dame, Rice, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Michigan State, University of Washington, Brigham Young
Safe Schools: Southern Methodist, Rochester, Maryland, Boston University, Purdue

Tuition & Fees: $90,550
Median GMAT: 700
GMAT Range (mid-80%): 640-750
Average GPA: 3.42
Acceptance Rate: 29%

Full-Time Enrollment: 312
International: 34%
Female: 24%
Minority –
African American: 6%
Asian American: 19%
Hispanic or Latino American: 5%
Mean Age: 27

Median Base Salary: $85,000
Median Signing Bonus: $15,000
Percentage of MBAs with Job Offers at Graduation: 68%
Percentage of MBAs with Job Offers Three Months Later: 94%

Estimate of Total Pay over a 20-Year Career*: $2,189,463 (only 35 U.S. business schools had higher career pay totals)

Notes: MBA Program Consideration Set: If you believe you’re a close match to this school–based on your GMAT and GPA scores,  your age and work experience, you should look at these other competitive full-time MBA programs as well. We list them by stretch, match and safety. These options are presented on the basis of brand image and ranking status.

* Payscale study for Bloomberg BusinessWeek.