The Best Schools For Turning Internships Into Jobs

PLACEMENT ONLY ONE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE

That said, Booth wasn’t always the program where students went to find jobs. In 2005, Booth’s graduation placement rate was 82.2%, five points lower than now. With this number, Booth ranked below programs like Harvard and Texas A&M (Both 88.1%), Minnesota (87.9%), Michigan State (84.6%), Ohio State (83.9%), Virginia (82.9%), and Wharton (82.4%).

While Booth has boosted graduation hiring, such success hasn’t necessarily translated to higher starting salaries. In 2005, five schools – Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, Dartmouth and Columbia – ranked ahead of Booth in starting compensation. That number has since expanded to eight schools, including MIT, California-Berkeley, and Michigan. In 2005, Harvard grads earned $3,546 more than Booth grads to start ($116,730 vs. $113.024). That gap has doubled over the past decade to $7,135 ($144,750 vs. $137,615). And Harvard has done this while its graduation placement rate has plummeted by 11.2% since 2015. At the same time, California-Berkeley grads have gained $10,500 against Booth grads over the last decade, all while its current placement rate – 72.9% — is 14.5% lower than Booth.

And that may mean something else is at play: Some Booth graduates may be accepting offers too early and leaving money on the table. Among the seven schools where 2014 grads earned $140,000 or more to start, four had graduation placement rates below 80% (with Stanford being the lowest at 73.6% and Wharton the highest at 84.3%). Why is this? On the surface, you could argue that a segment of students at these schools are being more choosey. Rather than tying themselves to an employer after a successful internship, they have enough confidence in their abilities that they can hold out for better offers. Optimists may also argue that student are more bullish on the global economy. However, look at the Class of 2010 – the first graduates to come out after the economic recovery began – against the Class of 2014. Among the Top 20 American full-time MBA programs ranked by Poets&Quants, 19 of 21 have higher graduation placement rates in 2014 than 2010. In other words, MBAs – despite their supposed risk-taking nature – are flocking to jobs more heavily in the wake of the economic collapse.

A look at Class of 2014 numbers from the Stanford Graduate School of Business provides another explanation, however. For the Class of 2014, Stanford’s placement rate shoots up from 73.6% at graduation to 92.1% within three months of graduation. The reason? Stanford students rely less on their school to help them land jobs. According to Stanford’s 2014 employment report, just 45% of students found jobs through school-facilitated activities, while 54% found work through their own efforts in networking and securing internships.

Stanford students also rely less on mainstream recruiters. For example, 21% of its 2014 graduates were hired in the areas of private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds. Another 17% moved into entrepreneurship. In other words, many Stanford MBAs gravitate to areas that fall outside the recruiting cycle, which would normally place students into jobs by graduation. Work authorizations were another factor at Stanford, with just 67% of students with non-permanent work authorizations receiving job offers by graduation (compared to 85% with permanent work authorizations).