M.B.A. Graduates Still Landing Jobs

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Click here to see the list of Northwest Arkansas’ colleges and universities.)r

When the economy gets rough, Americans go to graduate school.r

“Applications are way up,” said Michele Halsell, director of the Graduate School of Business in the University of Arkansas’ Sam M. Walton College of Business Administration.r

“You can expect that in a down market,” she said. “People need to be retooled.”r

The number of applications to the UA master of business administration program increased last year, but the number of students enrolled decreased.r

“We were trying to be more selective,” Halsell said. “We just don’t admit everybody. Our task in moving this program is to be more and more selective.”r

In 2002, 159 people completed applications to begin classes in the UA’s M.B.A. program in the fall of 2003. Fifty-five of those students were enrolled this fall. They had an average score on the Graduate Management Admission Test of 603, up 10 points from the previous year, and an average undergraduate grade point average of 3.27, down four one-hundredths of a point from the previous fall.r

“We are being more selective,” Halsell said. “We are getting a better quality of students every year.”r

Despite an influx of M.B.A. grads nationwide, there’s still a demand for them in Northwest Arkansas, said Theres Stiefer, director of the Walton College’s career development center.r

“We’re kind of living in an oxymoron of the country,” she said. “Right now, business is still pretty good here.”r

Stiefer said the average base starting salary for a M.B.A. graduate from the UA is currently $52,000 per year. The high-end starting salary would be about $80,000 and the low end $45,000, although, “We don’t tend to get the lower-end salaries,” she said.r

Stiefer said vendors to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville have hired several recent M.B.A. grads from the UA. Newell Rubbermaid hired the most, adding three UA grad M.B.A.s to its area staff last summer.r

“That’s why it’s so good for us,” Stiefer said. “The vendor community is bringing larger teams here.”r

Stiefer said the Walton College didn’t track starting salaries for M.B.A. grads last year and older records weren’t available to her.r

Nationally, salaries are higher for new M.B.A. grads, but not dramatically.r

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the low-end salary for an M.B.A graduate with a technical undergraduate degree decreased from $62,000 to $49,000 from 2000 to 2001. The base high-end salary stayed about the same, dropping only $1,000 to $79,000.r

For M.B.A graduates with a nontechnical undergraduate degree, the low-end salary decreased from $49,000 to $45,000 during that year while the high-end salaries stayed the same at $74,000.r

The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University does an annual study of M.B.A. grads from the top-tier schools. The study doesn’t include the UA. According to the Duke study, in 2003, 60 percent of M.B.A. grads from the top-tier schools had landed a job by graduation. In 2000, 84 percent had jobs by that time. In 1998, 86 percent had jobs when they graduated.r

The M.B.A. grads had an average of 1.8 job offers by the time of graduation, compared to 2.9 in 2000 and 2.7 in 1998.r

Average base salary for the 2003 M.B.A. grads from the top-tier schools was $87,808, compared with $86,540 in 2000, $77,224 in 1998 and $69,387 in 1996. r

Although it looks like salary is going up, when bonuses and stock options were figured in, total compensation had actuation decreased for the top-tier grads since 2000. Total compensation for M.B.A. grads in 2003 was $110,893, compared with $121,593 in 2000, $100,854 in 1998 and $80,181 in 1996. r

rCHARTr

rUA M.B.A.
rAdmissionsr

tr———tNo. of———–No.———–GMAT
rYear—-applications—-ennrolled—score—G.P.A.
r1999—75—38—575—3.36
r2000—85—47—573—3.36
r2001—128—62—593—3.31
r2002—159—55—603—3.27r

rSource: University of Arkansas Walton College of Business