The Application Process

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) released their 2015 Global Management Education Graduate Survey. The GMAC has been conducting this survey since 2000 and this year's survey covered over three thousand students from 112 universities across the globe and respondents came from 29 different countries. One statistic that stood out the most was just how happy students were with their decision to attend business school. Nine out of ten respondents from the class of 2015 said the value of their business degree was "good to outstanding." Another 88 per cent would recommend their program to others looking for a graduate degree.
A very strong job market is also present in the survey results. Since so much of student satisfaction is based on their employment outcomes, let's take a deeper dive into those numbers and see how they compare for various types of programs. First, full time MBA students had a pretty good year for job offers. 63 per cent of full time, two year MBA graduates had a job offer by graduation, compared to only 40 per cent in 2010. Other graduate programs showed similar increases. For example, 89 per cent of students getting a Masters in Accounting had a job offer compared to 66 per cent in 2010. The biggest growth in this area was for students getting a Masters in Management where 59 per cent of students had a job offer by graduation more than double the results in 2010. Part time MBA programs also showed significant gains in employment outcomes. In 2010, only 22 per cent of job seekers in part time programs had a job offer by graduation, but that result has more than tripled this year to 68 per cent. This is very interesting since typically part time programs were targeted to students who planned on staying at their current employer and recruiters treated them so, largely focusing their recruiting efforts on full time programs. However, recruiters are starting to see the value in part time students and programs. Part time students tend to have more experience and are continuing to gain experience during school. Recruiters are responding by shifting some of their resources to recruiting these students alongside their full time counterparts.
Perhaps the one bit of bad news in this survey is for European business schools and their students. This is the only type of program that has seen a drop in job offers by graduation. In 2013, 57 per cent of students at European MBA programs had an offer by graduation. The following year that number dropped slightly to 56 per cent. Worse, in 2016, the number of students dropped even further to only 41 per cent. What can European programs do to help turn the tide and improve their job placement results? Most importantly these schools should try to develop stronger relationships with employers outside of Europe. Since many students either don't come from Europe or would find it hard to stay for work, the schools need to do a better job opening up recruiting channels outside of Europe.
Overall 2015 was a very good year, one of the best years ever, for both students and business schools when it came to placing students.