In Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2015 ranking of full-time MBA programs, American University’s Kogod School of Business came in ranked as the #58 full-time MBA program in the country.
In past years, the rankings were compiled by considering a number of categories that measure strength of education as well as which programs best prepare MBA candidates for their future careers. The former system generated results based on three core metrics: student satisfaction, recruiter opinion and the research published by a business school’s faculty.
This year, Bloomberg Businessweek has revised the way they rank schools: They surveyed MBA degree holders post-graduation to for more insight into what graduates can expect in their future careers. According to BW, the new full-time MBA rankings are based on five parts:
- Employer Survey (35 percent of total score): Recruiter feedback on the skills they look for in MBAs, and which programs best equip their students with those skills
- Alumni Survey (30 percent): Feedback from the classes of 2007, 2008, and 2009 on how their MBAs have affected their careers, their compensation change over time, and their midcareer job satisfaction
- Student Survey (15 percent): The class of 2015’s take on academics, career services, campus climate, and more
- Job Placement Rate (10 percent): The most recent data on how many MBAs seeking full-time jobs get them within three months of graduation
- Starting Salary (10 percent): Most recent data on how much MBAs make in their first jobs after graduation, adjusted for industry and regional variation
Bloomberg BW told business school officials regarding the changes,
“We will strengthen the focus of our Full-Time MBA Rankings methodology by evaluating how well programs help graduates achieve their career goals. As such, we will no longer rank schools on faculty research output (the portion of our previous rankings model called Intellectual Capital). We will also introduce an alumni survey, and we will include more employment outcome data in our rankings model.”