Robert Dammon, CMU Tepper associate dean and professor, explains the price-wage connection: “The kinds of students that the best schools attract are going to get the highest-paying jobs.”

Paul R. Dorf, managing director of the consulting firm, Compensation Resources, adds, “The cream-of-the-crop companies hire the cream-of-the-crop grads.”

Top-ranked b-schools generally offer the most expensive programs and generally churn out the highest paid graduates. Harvard Business School, for example, has the most expensive MBA program, and the best paid alumni.

PayScale, a salary-comparison company, recently evaluated salary data of 23,000 MBA graduates from Bloomberg Businessweek’s top 45 American business schools.

Their data shows that on average, MBAs from top programs make $2.5 million (base-pay plus bonuses) over the course of 20 years in a single industry. HBS alumni make closer to $4 million, while alumni from lower ranked programs (but still in the top 45) like Iowa Tippie, make less than half of that.

Another interesting comparison between the higher ranked and lower ranked programs was the growth of salary over the two-decade period. Graduates from Yale SOM, for example, were awarded with extremely high starting salaries, but then experienced only small increases over the following 20 years. Grads from University of Connecticut’s business school, on the other hand, received lower starting salaries that more than doubled over that same 20-year period.

Below are the top median salaries earned after less than 2 years out of b-school and then the estimated career total for a 20-year long career:

Related Accepted.com Resources:

• B-School Zones
• The Rankings: An Accepted.com Special Report
• Forbes ROI MBA Rankings for 2010
• BusinessWeek’s Top 10 Undergraduate Business Schools with the Best Returns on Investment

Want our news sent directly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Almanac by clicking here!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The option to take the GRE instead of the GMAT exam is a somewhat recent development. What began as a trend (started by Stanford GSB) among a few schools has exploded into an almost-standard option available at 27% of the U.S. News‘ 433 b-schools on the Best Business School rankings report. More than 300 b-schools total accept the GRE as a GMAT alternative (including those not included in the U.S. News rankings).

This expanded option allows b-schools to widen their applicant pool, attracting potential MBAs from other GRE-required graduate paths.

US News ranked b-schools that now accept the GRE include:

1. (tie) Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
7. Dartmouth College (Tuck)
9. New York University (Stern)
11. Yale University
13. University of Virginia (Darden)
14. Duke University (Fuqua)
16. University of Texas—Austin (McCombs)
19. Washington University in St. Louis (Olin)

According to David Payne, VP and COO at ETS, accepting the GRE is a smart move, specifically from a business perspective. “At no cost to the schools,” he says, “it allows them to increase the size and diversity of their applicant pool.” More than 600,000 people take the GRE every year, while only 270,000 take the GMAT.

Both tests have experienced an increase in the number of test takers every year for the last six years.

Advantages to test-takers of the move of b-schools to accept the GRE include:

• The GRE costs about $110 less than the GMAT.
• Students who wish to apply to both b-school and another graduate or PhD program can do so easily (and affordably) by taking only one test.
• Those with weaker quant skills will have an easier time navigating the GRE’s math section than that of the GMAT.

Related Accepted.com Blog Posts:

• More B-Schools Accepting GRE in Lieu of GMAT
• GMAT or GRE: Which is Best for You?
• Record GMAT Registration Volume in 2009
• GMAT Advice

Want our news sent directly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Almanac by clicking here!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

• A recent survey conducted by Public Agenda shows that high school guidance counselors are not quite as effective at helping students get into college as they once were. The reason, according to Inside Higher Ed: First budget cuts have increased the student-to-counselor ratio, so counselors spend less quality time with each student; and second, the counselors are just not as good as they used to be. College advisors, on the other hand, received much more positive reviews. (Click here for a critical response from a veteran high school counselor.)

• Even the most prestigious of MBA programs (like HBS) have been called under scrutiny since the recent financial crisis, reports the Financial Post last week. And yet even with such criticism, top MBA programs (like Harvard) are receiving more and more applications. One reason for such an increase in popularity, explains the article, is Harvard’s position in the published rankings. But how reliable are these rankings? With so many ranking reports out there, so many ranking methodologies floating around, and so many surveys and questionnaires that tackle different sorts of questions, how can anyone attribute any justifiable weight to rankings? Surveys show that university adcoms, professors, and students all agree that the rankings are subjective and should not be relied upon, and yet the media seems to continue going rankings-crazy.

For more information about the value (and lack thereof) of rankings, check out MBA Rankings: An Accepted.com Special Report now.

• The Chronicle offers highlights from the career of USC’s now retired president Steven B. Sample, particularly his campaign to find a successful leader to replace his iconic role. Sample, who was president of University of Southern California, is praised for his enthusiasm and success at marketing and has “engineered one of the great recent transformations in American higher education” with his rebuilding and rebranding work at USC which in turn affected the economy and culture of Los Angeles. The new president, who will be named sometime next month, has large shoes to fill, especially since USC’s endowment took a hard hit by the recession. .

• More than one-third of university faculty members saw a dip in their 2009-2010 salaries, reports a recent Chronicle article. Faculty salaries at private doctoral institutions, on the other hand, actually saw a salary increase of about 1.7%.

• CNN Money’s Fortune Magazine ran an article recently on the strengths that military veterans bring to the business world. Wal-Mart U.S. is making particular strides to recruit junior military officers. Jennifer Seidner, senior recruiting manager at Wal-Mart, explains: “The thinking was that we could bring in world-class leadership talent that was already trained and ready to go. And then we could teach them retail, because we know that pretty well.” The result of such an endeavor: Wal-Mart has “tapped into a good mine of talent.” Other companies, as well as business schools, are also beginning to place a higher premium on military veterans in the workforce.

• In a BusinessWeek article entitled “Business Schools Revamp the Application,” author Francesca Di Meglio discusses three major changes to the MBA application process: GRE scores are now accepted by many b-schools instead of just the traditional GMAT; for non-native English speakers, the IELTS is accepted in addition to the traditional TOEFL test; application deadlines are earlier; and last but not least, b-schools will now accept video and/or audio components to the application. Chicago Booth is considered a pioneer is the multimedia aspects of admissions. UCLA Anderson picked up on the trend, offering applicants with an option to present an audio submission, and 70% of applicants accepted the challenge. As Mae Jennifer Shores, assistant dean of admissions at Anderson says, “A lot of business schools have concerns about authenticity. This was a way to get a more authentic view of a candidate.”

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The latest expansionist trend is to extend the traditional four-walled classroom overseas. Harvard Business School used to pride itself on its steadfast commitment to bring students to the school and NOT to bring the school to the students; even Harvard has succumbed in a limited way.

The mighty help support others to become mighty as well. In the 1950s Harvard helped the burgeoning IESE and INSEAD programs in Europe get started and succeed. Now top European b-schools are expanding off shore (like IESE to New York City) and helping new MBA programs grow in Asia and the Middle East. Even India (a country that generally beats its own drum in management education) has “signaled a green light to international business schools to enter the market.”

Ajit Rangnekar, Indian School of Business Dean predicts the future of educational expansionism and the effects it may have on management education:

Global institutions from emerging markets, with an inherent cost advantage, will become more attractive destinations for management education, as well as a resource pool for management talent. There will also be a growth in demand for research on emerging markets, accompanied by a spurt in collaborations/partnerships among business schools globally.

The first part of Dean Rangnekar’s prediction has already come true, as is evidenced by the boom in foreign student enrollment in China. The number of non-Chinese students at CEIBS in Shanghai, for example, has doubled in five years.

Even U.S. students are experiencing this blossoming “wanderlust” as they begin to look “beyond their home market to study for an MBA.”

Related Accepted.com Resources:

• MBA Admissions Advice for Chinese Applicants
• MBA Admissions Advice for Indian Applicants
• The European MBA Alternative
• MBA Rankings: An Accepted.com Special Report

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The best business schools according to FT:

1. London Business School
2. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
3. Harvard Business School
4. Stanford GSB
5. INSEAD
6. Columbia Business School
7. IE (tied with Columbia)
8. MIT Sloan
9. Chicago Booth
10. Hong Kong UST Business School

I have long argued that far more valuable than the overall rankings are the specialty rankings. Here are FT’s specialty rankings:

Top for international business
1 Thunderbird School of Global Management
2 University of South Carolina: Moore
3 Georgetown University: McDonough
4 Insead
5 George Washington University
6 Hult International Business School
7 IMD
8 Manchester Business School
9 University of Southern California: Marshall
10 London Business School

Top for finance
1 University of Chicago: Booth
2 New York University: Stern
3 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
4 Rice University: Jones
5 University of Rochester: Simon
6 London Business School
7 Columbia Business School
8 Macquarie Graduate School of Management
9 University of Iowa: Tippie
10 University of Toronto: Rotman

Top for accountancy
1 Brigham Young University: Marriott
2 University of Chicago: Booth
3 University of Texas at Austin: McCombs
4 New York University: Stern
5 Macquarie Graduate School of Management
6 University of Rochester: Simon
7 Cornell University: Johnson
8 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
9 Rice University: Jones
10 Texas A & M University: Mays

Top for entrepreneurship
1 Babson College: Olin
2 Stanford University GSB
3 Imperial College Business School
4 UCLA: Anderson
5 University of California at Berkeley: Haas
6 MIT Sloan School of Management
7 University of Cambridge: Judge
8 IMD
9 Wisconsin School of Business
10 Insead

Top for economics
1 University of Chicago: Booth
2 Cranfield School of Management
3 MIT Sloan School of Management
4 Yale School of Management
5 University of Rochester: Simon
6 Imperial College Business School
7 Melbourne Business School
8 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
9 IE Business School
10 New York University: Stern

Top for corporate social responsibility
1 University of Notre Dame: Mendoza
2 University of California at Berkeley: Haas
3 Yale School of Management
4 Ipade
5 University of Virginia: Darden
6 Brigham Young University: Marriott
7 Esade Business School
8 University of Michigan: Ross
9 University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler
10 Thunderbird School of Global Management

Top for general management
1 University of Virginia: Darden
2 Harvard Business School
3 Ipade
4 Dartmouth College: Tuck
5 IMD
6 University of Michigan: Ross
7 University of Western Ontario: Ivey
8 Northwestern University: Kellogg
9 Stanford University GSB
10 Duke University: Fuqua

Top for marketing
1 Northwestern University: Kellogg
2 Duke University: Fuqua
3 Indiana University: Kelley
4 Ipade
5 Esade Business School
6 Wisconsin School of Business
7 Imperial College Business School
8 University of Michigan: Ross
9 HEC Paris
10 Cornell University: Johnson

Rather than list all my important caveats for using rankings, I’ll simply refer you to our MBA Rankings Report.

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

Stanford won top slot for both rankings. It is #1 for providing the best return on investment for its graduates, as well as for churning out MBAs who are extremely satisfied with their current jobs and their completed b-school experience.

The survey shows that Stanford alumni are more likely than grads from any other business school to sing praises to their alma mater. School satisfaction and job satisfaction are closely intertwined with financial success, says Pulin Sanghvi, Stanford GSB Director of Career Management and Stanford GSB ’97 alum. “True satisfaction happens from work-life actualization,” he says, referring to the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness at Work. “We nurture students to pursue career decisions based on their internal drivers. That they then become financial successes is just a bonus.”

The Top Ten US B-Schools with the Most Satisfied Graduates

1.   Stanford GSB

2.   Wharton

3.   Chicago Booth

4.   NYU Stern

5.   Brigham Young University

6.   UC Berkeley Haas

7.   Dartmouth Tuck

8.   UCLA Anderson (tied)

8.   University of Rochester Simon Graduate School of Business (tied)

10. University of Virginia Darden

The Top Ten Non-US B-Schools with the Most Satisfied Graduates

1.   Oxford

2.   IESE

3.   London Business School

4.   IPADE

5.   Insead

6.   HEC-Paris

7.   IMD

8.   ESADE (tied)

8.   IE (tied)

10. Cranfield School of Management

For more information on the value of rankings and how you should (or should not) use them, check out Accepted.com’s new special report on MBA rankings.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

In this special rankings report you’ll learn:

• What the published rankings are and are not.
• How to use the rankings.
• How not to abuse the rankings.

Most importantly, you’ll learn about the rankings’ value (or lack thereof). Since there is no definitive way to rank schools, ultimately a school will be #1 only if YOU are a perfect fit with that school, regardless of how other people view it.

Consequently B-school rankings should be used as supplementary not primary research material for learning about different MBA programs.

But no one will argue this point: It’s exciting when rankings come out, and they’re fun to review. Just take the time to learn how to understand them properly: Check out the Accepted’s Special Report on the MBA Rankings!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

1. Kellogg
2. Chicago Booth
3. Wharton
4. Columbia
5. USC Marshall

BusinessWeek also published its part-time MBA program rankings and its rankings of executive education programs. Its methodology in all three cases focuses on “end-user satisfaction.”

The articles and videos accompanying the rankings are recommended if you are considering an EMBA or part-time MBA program. Like everything and everyone else, these programs were hit hard by the Great Recession.

A few highlights from the lead article:

• EMBA student satisfaction has plummeted as students increasingly foot the bill and expect career placement services commensurate with those offered their full-time MBA colleagues.
• Of the 83 EMBA programs suveyed, only the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business boosted student satisfaction since the last survey.
• “Nearly half of all EMBA programs and part-time programs” reported a decline in application volume in 2009.
• 80% of participating part-time programs experienced a decline in student satisfaction.

By Linda Abraham, founder and president of Accepted.com.

The Top 10 per Aspen:

1. York (Schulich)
2. Michigan Ross
3. Yale SOM
4. Stanford GSB
5. Notre Dame (Mendoza)
6. UC Berkeley (Haas)
7. RSM Erasmus
8. NYU Stern
9. IE Business School
10. Columbia

If you are not the least bit interested in the topics Aspen is highlighting, then this ranking is irrelevant to you. However, if you are interested in sustainable development or social entrepreneurship, then you will want to review the profiles contained in Beyond Grey Pinstripes.

By Linda Abraham, founder and president of Accepted.com.