The Best Schools For Turning Internships Into Jobs

Paccar Hall, Foster School of Business

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON AND VANDERBILT MAKING WAVES

However, consider Stanford to be the anomaly. At Darden, which maintains an 86.8% graduation placement rate, school-facilitated activities, including internships, were responsible for 87% of all job offers at graduation (with 95% of Darden MBAs completing internships). At Wharton, whose 84.3% graduation placement rate ranks fourth among top 50 schools, 736 of 743 students from the Class of 2015 who sought summer employment received job offers. And this 99% rate is consistent with Wharton’s Class of 2014 and 2013, where 99.6% and 97.8% respectively received offers after completing their internships. As schools become more involved with employers – and a greater percentage of students participate in internships – the higher you’ll find the graduation placement rate.

Aside from Booth, Darden and Wharton, where are your best chances for securing a job before your second year? Among top 25 schools, you can head west to the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, where 100% of the Class of 2015 secured internships with employers that included Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, Nike, and Microsoft. Looking back a year, Foster’s Class of 2014 enjoyed an 83.8% placement rate at graduation, along with starting incomes of $125,367 (an increase of $42,799 since 2005 –nearly $4,300 a year!). Duke (81.8%), Michigan (81.3%), Northwestern (80.7%), and Brigham Young (80.6%) also reported graduation employment rates above 80%, a testament to their ability to deliver on internships. At the bottom of the list, you’ll find the University of California-Davis (51.4%) and the University of California-Irvine (56.2%). In fact, California schools – USC (64.4%) and UCLA (69.9%) – aren’t that far behind their in-state brethren.

Over the past decade, several schools have made big leaps in graduation placement. They include Vanderbilt Owen (+18.6%), Washington Foster (+16.0%), Penn State (+14.6%), Notre Dame (+13.6%), Rochester Simon (+12.8%), and Emory Goizueta (+11.5%). At Owen, for example, 79% of the Class of 2015’s internships stemmed from school-facilitated activities, with 99% of students pursuing an internship receiving one.

At the opposite end, the University of Illinois has slid by 19.1% since 2005. They were followed by the University of California-Davis (-16.0%), Ohio State (-15.9%), and Minnesota (15.5%). In the case of Ohio State and Minnesota, these schools bounced back with three month placement at 89.7% and 92.8% (with graduates from each averaging starting salaries near $113,000).

DON’T MISS: HOW MUCH MONEY DO MBA INTERNS MAKE? Or MBA INTERNSHIPS: ADVICE FROM THE EXPERTS

To see all placement rates from 2005-2014, go to the next page.