Meet Boston College’s MBA Class of 2017

Every city comes with a reputation. Many associate Paris with romance. They picture sipping wine in a secluded bistro or taking a moon-lit stroll along the Seine. New York City is a blur of high finance, high fashion, and high culture. Here, Wall Street high rises tower over immigrant enclaves, as the brash blinking bulbs of Times Square give way to dusty and decorated Broadway stages. When it comes to education, few cities are as regaled as Boston. It is a city of contradictions, blue collar in spirit and elite in sensibility. And it is supple enough to absorb Harvard’s storied tradition, MIT’s insurgent innovation, Babson’s creative verve, and Brandeis’ activist ideals.

Although Boston is home to over 250,000 college students, it is not just a place to study. According to CityLab, Beantown is ranked 18th in the world in terms of GDP – tying it with Beijing and Shanghai. The city is awash in venture capital funding, with the metro’s top five VC firms investing nearly $352 million dollars in Massachusetts companies alone in 2014 (and nearly $1.256 billion dollars overall) according to the Boston Business Journal. The city is also a financial hub, with the metro boasting Fortune 500 firms like Liberty Mutual Group, State Street Corporation, and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. Its famed Route 128 is home to high tech powerhouses ranging from Microsoft to Raytheon. What’s more, three leading consulting firms – Bain & Company, the Boston Consulting Group, and LEK Consulting – are headquartered in Boston too.

STARTING SALARIES CLIMB BY 9.2% FOR 2015 CLASS

In other words, Boston is the place to be, whether you’re looking to study with the best, score an internship, build a deep network, launch a startup, or land a coveted job. If you plan to earn an MBA, a degree from the Boston College Carroll School of Management is guaranteed to open doors. Although known as a quant school – with 40% of its 2015 Class entering financial services – recent Carroll graduates have also received offers from companies as varied as Facebook, Reebok, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, and Staples. What’s more, the value of Carroll graduates has increased in the eyes of recruiters. In the past year alone, average total compensation for Carroll MBAs jumped from $94,963 to $103,226 (with 2015 placement coming in at 88%).

That’s good news for the 88 members of Carroll’s full-time MBA Class of 2017. At the first glance, the class could be labeled as cosmopolitan and accomplished. They include a former senior analyst with the New York City Office of Management and Budget, along with a recruiter from Apple. They have worked for top organizations as renowned as PwC, Deloitte, Credit Suisse, and Miller Coors. And they earned degrees from 78 different undergraduate programs, including the U.S. Military Academy, Columbia, Stanford, and Georgetown. 10% even hold a master’s degree (with another 18% are enrolled in dual degree programs).

Like Boston, Carroll could be best described as “Diverse.” Ranging in age from 22 to 38, the class has worked in 32 different industries. They come from 16 different countries and 18 different states – and speak 25 different languages. The class also includes six students with military backgrounds, including students who served with the Republic of China’s Air Force and the South Korean Army.

STUDENTS FOREGO $141,000 EACH TO STUDY AT BC

What’s more, they are deeply committed to earning an MBA? How serious? Based on their incomes, Carroll estimates that the class will give up $12.4 million dollars in earnings. Translation: That’s nearly $141,000 per student! For Kevin Barry, a Vanderbilt grad who previously managed a 10-year $7.8 billion dollar capital plan for the city of New York, the benefits of studying at Boston College far offset the short-term costs. “I chose Boston College due its strong reputation and top-notch faculty for finance and data analytics,” he stresses. “When I visited BC, I fell in love with the school. BC has a tightly-knit community and the people here are down-to-earth and genuine. The program places a heavy emphasis on professional development, core technical skills, and has a very loyal alumni network.”

Thus far, the class has more than delivered on its promise points out Maryellen Jordan, the school’s assistant dean for graduate programs, in a statement to Poets&Quants. “The BC MBA Class of 2017 arrived with tremendous energy and enthusiasm…During their first quarter, students engaged at a high level and consistently produced high quality output. (This class, like those before it, was prepared for the rigors of an intense analytical MBA experience.) Now at the half-way point in their first semester, the class of 2017 is successfully balancing the demands of their academic coursework with a strong focus on professional objectives.”

As a result, Jordan is bullish on the class’ prospects. “This class is well positioned to successfully navigate the internship hiring season, having benefited during the enrollment process from an early engagement with their career development advisors. As a result, the class arrived engaged and confident in their career strategies for both their internship placement and post-MBA careers.”

SCHOOL DRAWS 35% WOMEN

So how does the class stack up by the numbers? For the 2017 intake, Carroll received 595 applications and accepted 228 students (a 38.3% acceptance rate). Collectively, the class averaged a 664 GMAT with a 670 median at a range of 600-720 in the 80th percentile. As undergraduates, the class produced a 3.26 GPA (3.24 median), with averages falling from 2.74-3.84 in the 80th percentile. Undergraduate humanities and liberal arts majors represent the largest portion of the class at 23%. They are followed by economics (13%), engineering (11%), finance and accounting (11%), business (7%), and math and physical science (3%). Together, “other” and “double major” combine for nearly a third of the class.

Demographically, 35% of the 2017 Class is comprised of women – a higher percentage than full-time MBA programs at Cornell and Georgetown. International and American minority students make up another 32% and 7% of the class respectively. The class averages four years of work experience, with the largest bloc coming out of finance (19%). Other industries strongly represented in the class include consulting, healthcare, education, government, manufacturing and energy.

Go to next page to access student profiles of this year’s incoming class.