Poets and Quants

Wisconsin School of Business

by John A. Byrne

 

 

The University of Wisconsin's business school is ranked 24th among the top 100 MBA program in the U.S. by Poets&Quants.

24. University of Wisconsin- Madison

Wisconsin School of Business

975 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706
Admissions: 608-262-4000 or 800-390-8043
Email: mba@bus.wisc.edu
Website: http://www.bus.wisc.edu/mba
Apply Online: http://www.bus.wisc.edu/mba/checklist/

Admission Deadlines for Class of 2014:
Round One: 11/4/11
Round Two: 2/3/12
Round Three: 3/16/12
Round Four: 4/27/12

Wisconsin is a hidden gem of a business school that annually enrolls not much more than 110 full-time MBAs. The small, intimate nature of the program, the applied projects thrown at students, and the emphasis on putting students through specialized areas of study make these MBAs well-prepared for their business careers.

In the first semester of the first year in the Wisconsin full-time MBA Program, the general business core delivers an integrated perspective on key functional areas of business. The second semester addresses fundamental management principles, stressing application of these principles to functional areas. Core courses are taken as a cohort to develop camaraderie and teamwork among students. The first year also includes at least three courses in students’ career specialization.

The specialized preparation that begins during the first year of the program is the primary focus the second year. In order to thoroughly grasp all aspects of a chosen specialization, students take up to eight classes in 10 different specialized areas that range from arts administration and brand & product management to real estate and supply chain management.

Latest Up-to-Date MBA Rankings:

Poets&Quants (2011): 24
BusinessWeek (2010): 34
Forbes (2011): 29
U.S. News & World Report (2011): 28
Financial Times (2011): 63 (Global), 31 (U.S.)
The Economist (2011): 45 (Global) 27 U.S.)

Rankings Analysis:

The University of Wisconsin’s Business School showed the most year-over-year improvement of any MBA program in the top 25 of Poets&Quants’s 2011 ranking. Given Wisconsin’s current rank along with its very low tuition, this is one of the few real bargains left in the MBA market. The school rose six full places to a rank of 24 from 30 in 2010, a highly unusual achievement in a ranking that for the most part was very stable year over year.

The reason? In three of the four major rankings published in 2011 Wisconsin gained significant ground. The school rose six places to 29th from 35th in the 2011 Forbes survey, which ranks MBA programs on the basis of their return-on-investment. The Financial Times lifted Wisconsin by four places to 63rd on its global list, up from 67 a year earlier. And The Economist awarded the school a nine-place improvement, giving the school a rank of 45th globally, up from 54th in 2010. The only ranking that went slightly south for Wisconsin was U.S. News, which ranked the school 28th in 2011, down one step from its 2010 ranking of 27.

When you look under the hood, what you find across-the-board improvements in the core quality metrics of the school. Median GMATs for the Class of 2013, for example, were 20 points higher than they were for the previous class: 690 versus 670. The school’s acceptance rate went down one percentage point to 30%. Median base salaries for the Class of 2011 rose to $94,000, a healthy jump from the $87,500 median in 2010. Median signing bonuses went up, too, hitting $20,000, much better than the $16,750 a year earlier. So did the percentage of MBAs with job offers at graduation, rising to 83% in 2011 from a dismal 59% a year earlier. All of these quality improvements were reflected in the school’s substantially improved rankings–and will likely result in a boost in the next ranking from U.S. News.

BusinessWeek, whose biennial ranking had an off year in 2010, had ranked Wisconsin a respectable 34th in 2010. The BusinessWeek survey largely measures student and corporate recruiter satisfaction with a school, and solicits direct feedback from recent graduates. One Wisconsin grad did a great job summing up the MBA experience at the school: “Wisconsin offers tremendous cost vs. payback value for both in-state and out-of-state students. The city of Madison itself offers big-city living without the major congestion, and it offers plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation. The brand new state-of-the-art MBA wing of Grainger Hall is an amazing facility, offering the MBA students a spacious and high-tech environment for learning, working, and relaxing. The faculty and staff here are extremely supportive, the class sizes are small, and the MBA students are treated as a very special group among the larger population of business students on campus and in Grainger Hall.”

We couldn’t have said it better!

Tuition & Fees: $25,662 (resident)
Tuition & Fees: $53,515 (non-resident)

Recommended Two-Year Budget: $58,220 (resident)

Recommended Two-Year Budget: $86,000 (non-resident)
Median GMAT: 690
GMAT Range (mid-80%): 630-730
Average GPA: 3.37
Acceptance Rate: 30%

Full-Time MBA Enrollment: 228
International: 13%
Female: 24%
Minority –
African American: 8%
Asian American: 4%
Hispanic or Latino American: 4%
Mean Age: 28

Median Base Salary: $94,000
Median Signing Bonus: $20,000
Percentage of MBAs with Job Offers at Graduation: 83%
Percentage of MBAs with Job Offers Three Months Later: 92%

Where The Class of 2011 Went To Work:

Consumer Products — 30%
Financial Services — 20%
Technology — 11%
Real Estate — 10%
Healthcare/Biotech — 7%
Consulting — 6%
Manufacturing — 6%
Energy — 2%
Non-Profit — 2%

  • Evren

    Hi John,

    Thanks for the great site.

    If you would name 3 schools that feed Technology-IT industry most, what would them be(not necessarily a top school)?
    Would Wisconsin be among them? (sounds so promising because of the fee). Fee is a major concern for me.

    I’m 30, male, have 690 GMAT, IT professional, about 7 years of professional experience and from Europe.

    Thank you very much !

  • http://poetsandquants.com/members/jbyrne/ John A. Byrne

    Evren,

    At the top of the list, I would put MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford and Berkeley. Among the state schools, I would put Texas at Austin, Minnesota and Maryland. Arizona, Georgia, and the Georgia Institute of Technology also would be schools worth looking at. Good luck!

  • Tommy

    Hi John,

    As a Chicago resident and future MBA candidate, I’d apppreciate any insight you could share on some of the “non-elite” MBA programs in the region. I’m really interested to hear what you have to say about Indiana vs. Wisonsin (stregths/weaknesses of each, cost comparison, difficulty of admission, etc).

    Thanks!!

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