How Online MBA Graduates Rated The Degree’s Career Impact In P&Q's 2024 Ranking

For many online MBA candidates, career impact is often the most important factor when considering the degree. That’s why the category accounts for one third of our ranking methodology.

Each year as part of our ranking of online MBA programs, we ask recent graduates eight questions about their career results from the program and their satisfaction with the career services and resources offered to them through the online MBA program. (See 2024’s ranking of the best online MBA programs here.)

This year, we surveyed alumni from the Class of 2023, those graduating between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023. The survey was sent to 9,080 eligible alumni at 51 ranked programs with 1,512 returned surveys. That’s a 17% response rate, down slightly from the 18% achieved the past two years.

Below, and on the following pages, we show how Class of 2023 alumni from each of the 51 participating schools rated their programs in terms of career impact. Scroll down for data on salaries and promotions, then click through each page or go to a particular category:

PROGRAM’S CAREER SERVICES
MEETING CAREER GOALS
PROFESSIONAL NETWORK

You can also see how 2023 alumni rated their overall programs in this story.

SALARY AND PROMOTION

According to alumni responses, 40% of students reported earning a promotion directly because of their OMBA degree while 54% reported earning a salary increase.

Further, 50% or more of graduates gained promotions as a result of their degree at 11 of the 51 schools in our ranking.

Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business scored the highest in this category with 68% of its respondent alumni getting a promotion. Worcester Polytechnic Institute was second with 67% of respondents while University of Michigan Ross School of Business was third at 65.71%

Did you gain a promotion as a result of the online MBA program?
School	Percent
Rice University (Jones)	68%
Worcester Polytechnic Institute	66.67%
University of Michigan (Ross)	65.71%
University of Texas at Dallas	60%
University of Southern California (Marshall)	58.33%
Santa Clara University (Leavey)	56.25%
Pepperdine University (Graziadio)	55.17%
Lehigh University	54.55%
Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)	52.78%
Auburn University (Harbert)	52.38%
Florida International University	51.11%
University of Michigan-Dearborn	50%
Baylor University (Hankamer)	49.06%
Southern Methodist University (Cox)	48.15%
Indiana University (Kelley)	46.83%
Jack Welch Management Institute	45.98%
William & Mary (Mason)	45%
Rogers State University	42.86%
University of Utah (Eccles)	42.86%
University of Maryland (Smith)	42.55%
University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	42.42%
University of California, Davis	41.67%
Drexel University (LeBow)	41.18%
University of Cincinnati (Lindner)	41.18%
Clemson University	40%
Ohio University	40%
University of Florida (Warrington)	39.66%
University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Isenberg)	39.13%
University of Delaware (Lerner)	37.50%
University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium	37.50%
Washington State University	36.71%
University of Massachusetts-Lowell	36.21%
Louisiana State University (Ourso)	35.71%
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga	35.71%
University of Washington (Foster)	35.29%
American University (Kogod)	35%
Bowling Green	33.33%
Bryant University	33.33%
Hofstra University (Zarb)	33.33%
Syracuse University (Whitman)	33.33%
University of Iowa (Tippie)	32.47%
North Carolina State University (Jenkins)	31.25%
University of Denver (Daniels)	30.77%
University of Nebraska	28.57%
San Jose State University (Lucas)	26.67%
University of North Texas	25%
University of South Florida (Muma)	25%
Villanova University	25%
Kennesaw State University	16.67%
Creighton University (Heider)	5.56%
SUNY Oswego	0%

SALARY INCREASE

Salary increases were more prevalent, with half or more of the graduates from 35 programs reporting that they received a salary bump as a result of their online MBA degrees.

Rice University (Jones) graduates, who also reported the most promotions from their degree, tied with two more schools in the increased salary metric. Some 80% of respondents from Rice, Michigan (Ross), and University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management reported earning a salary raise.

Did your salary increase as a result of the online MBA program?
School	Percent
Rice University (Jones)	80%
University of Michigan (Ross)	80%
University of Texas at Dallas	80%
Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)	69.44%
Santa Clara University (Leavey)	68.75%
Bowling Green	66.67%
Worcester Polytechnic Institute	66.67%
American University (Kogod)	65%
Drexel University (LeBow)	64.71%
University of Florida (Warrington)	63.79%
Lehigh University	63.64%
William & Mary (Mason)	63.41%
Baylor University (Hankamer)	62.96%
University of Southern California (Marshall)	62.50%
Indiana University (Kelley)	62.20%
University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	62.12%
University of Washington (Foster)	61.76%
SUNY Oswego	60%
University of Michigan-Dearborn	60%
Jack Welch Management Institute	58.62%
Auburn University (Harbert)	57.14%
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga	57.14%
Hofstra University (Zarb)	55.56%
Syracuse University (Whitman)	55.56%
Pepperdine University (Graziadio)	55.17%
University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Isenberg)	54.35%
Ohio University	54.29%
University of Massachusetts-Lowell	53.45%
University of California, Davis	52.78%
Louisiana State University (Ourso)	52.38%
Southern Methodist University (Cox)	51.85%
Florida International University	51.11%
Bryant University	50%
North Carolina State University (Jenkins)	50%
University of South Florida (Muma)	50%
University of Utah (Eccles)	50%
University of Cincinnati (Lindner)	47.06%
Washington State University	45.57%
San Jose State University (Lucas)	43.75%
University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium	43.75%
Rogers State University	42.86%
University of Nebraska	42.86%
University of Maryland (Smith)	42.55%
University of Iowa (Tippie)	41.56%
Villanova University	41.18%
Clemson University	40%
University of Delaware (Lerner)	37.50%
Kennesaw State University	33.33%
University of North Texas	32.14%
Creighton University (Heider)	27.78%
University of Denver (Daniels)	23.08%