More Graduates Using Online MBAs To Pivot Careers

See how often alumni from our 51 ranked online MBA programs switched jobs, industries, and employers in our pivoter’s data drop.

INDUSTRY CHANGERS

Some 20.31% of responding alumni reported changing industries with their OMBA degree, a slight increase over last year’s 18.95%.

Graduates of American University reported the highest rate of job industry changes this year at 60%. That’s quite a bit higher than the next school: Pepperdine University (Graziadio) at 41.38% of alumni.

Did you change industries as a result of the program?

School Percent ‘Yes’
American University (Kogod) 60.00%
Pepperdine University (Graziadio) 41.38%
Southern Methodist University (Cox) 40.74%
Rice University (Jones) 40%
SUNY Oswego 40%
Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) 38.89%
University of Michigan (Ross) 34.29%
San Jose State University (Lucas) 31.25%
University of Cincinnati (Lindner) 29.41%
Rogers State University 28.57%
University of Maryland (Smith) 28.36%
Creighton University (Heider) 27.78%
Indiana University (Kelley) 26.77%
University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) 25.76%
North Carolina State University (Jenkins) 25%
University of Southern California (Marshall) 25%
Baylor University (Hankamer) 24.07%
Ohio University 22.86%
Louisiana State University (Ourso) 21.43%
University of North Texas 21.43%
University of Washington (Foster) 20.59%
Clemson University 20%
University of Michigan-Dearborn 20%
University of Texas at Dallas 20%
University of California, Davis 19.44%
University of Florida (Warrington) 18.97%
University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium 18.75%
Washington State University 17.72%
Bryant University 16.67%
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 16.67%
Florida International University 15.56%
University of Denver (Daniels) 15.38%
William & Mary (Mason) 14.63%
University of Utah (Eccles) 14.29%
Bowling Green 13.89%
University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Isenberg) 13.04%
University of Iowa (Tippie) 12.99%
Santa Clara University (Leavey) 12.50%
University of Delaware (Lerner) 12.50%
Drexel University (LeBow) 11.76%
Jack Welch Management Institute 11.49%
Hofstra University (Zarb) 11.11%
Auburn University (Harbert) 9.52%
University of Massachusetts-Lowell 8.62%
Kennesaw State University 8.33%
University of South Florida (Muma) 8.33%
University of Nebraska 7.14%
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga 7.14%
Villanova University 5.88%
Lehigh University 0%
Syracuse University (Whitman) 0%

Click through the following pages for data on how alumni changed job functions and careers.

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