This article originally appeared in its entirety on clearadmit.com

Last week we took a close look at two of the giants among business schools when it comes to training the next generation of marketers. A professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management literally wrote the book on marketing—or at least a seminal text still used to teach students in marketing departments at business schools around the globe. Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School claims to have begun teaching and researching marketing before the field even existed—offering courses dating back to 1909 in what was then called “merchandizing.”

OK—so Kellogg and Wharton may have some legitimate stakes as the granddaddies of marketing, but several other programs are steadily making gains on their elders. In fact, a growing cohort of schools are sending far more of their MBA graduates into marketing roles than either Kellogg or Wharton. At two schools, students heading into marketing roles straight out of school made up nearly 30 percent of the most recent graduating class, almost 10 percentage points higher than Kellogg and three times that of Wharton.

As you might imagine, with more and more students showing interest in marketing, schools are beefing up their resources to meet demand—devoting increasing faculty, courses, centers and programming to support these interests.

In Best Schools for Marketing, Part II, join us as we examine some of these rising stars—taking a closer look at just what’s on offer at a few more schools where marketing is on fire.

Marketing at UCLA Anderson School of Management

The UCLA Anderson School of Management has sent as much as 29 percent of its graduates into marketing roles in recent years, with 28.2 percent of the Class of 2015 heading off to marketing departments in industries ranging from consumer products, entertainment and media to technology and healthcare. More Anderson graduates went into marketing functions upon graduation than any other, including finance (24.9 percent) and consulting (20.1 percent). Of course, counted within the percentage of graduates heading into marketing functions were those pursuing roles in brand management, product management, business analytics, sales and other marketing services—though it could be that the variety of employment options open to marketers is precisely part of its wide appeal. Top hiring firms for Anderson students in marketing include Mattel, the Walt Disney Company, Apple, Fox and General Mills.

How Does Anderson Make Marketers Out of Its MBAs?
For starters, every Anderson student gets an introduction to foundational marketing concepts as part of one of the school’s core classes, “Marketing Management I: Principles of Marketing.” You can’t pass this class without a firm grasp of the “four Ps” and “3 Cs.” But from there students can dive into an ocean of marketing elective options, covering everything from the building blocks of the field—like price policies, consumer behavior and market research—to more nuanced and cutting-edge topics such as one-to-one marketing, entertainment marketing and web marketing analytics.

In their second year, Anderson MBA students take part in a required eight-credit Applied Management Research project (AMR) that stretches out over two quarters, with students working in teams on an original applied research assignment. Students interested in post-MBA marketing positions can choose the management field study option, getting placed with a client company where their job is to analyze marketing or competitive challenges and recommend how to address them. One recent Anderson AMR team worked closely with the Mayor’s Office to rebrand the city of Los Angeles.

Unlike Kellogg and Wharton, which both offer majors in marketing, Anderson does not have majors. That said, Anderson students can tailor their studies through a variety of tracks and certificate programs. Students who opt for the marketing track can choose from sets of electives recommended by the school for particular career paths. For example, students interested in careers in brand management might select from electives that will help them build a solid foundation in consumer psychology, financial modeling and quantitative research. Students gearing up for careers in high-tech marketing can instead focus on electives that will help them hone their understanding of network effects, rapid cost declines, information goods versus industrial goods, product bundling and versioning.

Who’s Teaching Anderson MBAs to Become Marketers?
Anderson’s marketing faculty is comprised of almost two dozen distinguished scholars who bring a range of marketing expertise, spanning from human behavior to market analytics to pricing. Professor Dominique Hanssens, who has served as the school’s faculty chair, associate dean and marketing area chair, is widely regarded for the quality of both his research and his teaching. He is best known for using data-analytic methods such as econometrics and time-series analysis to tackle strategic marketing problems—for companies including Agilent Technologies, British Telecom, Disney, Google, Hewlett Packard, Hughes, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel Toys, Mercedes, Microsoft, Schwab and Wells Fargo, among others.

Then there’s Professor Danny Oppenheimer, who approaches marketing through the lens of psychology, examining human decision-making and, in particular, what information people attend to when making decisions. Current Marketing Area Chair Aimee Drolet Rossi, meanwhile, examines the mental processes that underlie consumer decisions, with specific focus on decision-making among older consumers, as well as on the development of habits and moderation. And though married to another professor in the Anderson marketing area, Peter Rossi, she quips that there’s not much marketing discussion at the dinner table. “He’s an econometrics expert. If I pick up something he’s written, I can’t even understand it,” she joked on the Anderson faculty page. “All these equations … there’s nothing to talk about.”

The point is, Anderson’s marketing faculty offers students a range of perspectives and access to expertise and research that will serve them whichever path they ultimately choose within the field.

Outside the Anderson Marketing Classroom
The student-led Marketing Association (MA) works to help advance its members’ career searches as well as educate the larger Anderson community about the marketing field. It does this through a mix of professional and social events all year long. Kicking things off is a Fall Career Night, where interested students can learn more about potential career paths in both traditional and emerging marketing fields by networking with alumni and recruiters. Last year’s panelists included representatives from Nestlé, Mattel, Clorox, E&J Gallo Winery, General Mills, Henkel and Mars.

Throughout the year, the MA also hosts corporate presentations, a speaker series, a workshop series that helps students hone their marketing interview skills, and something called “Dinners for Eight,” which are informal dinners with Anderson alumni focused around specific topics and industries.

Anderson marketing students can also take part in the Elite Eight Brand Management Competition, the historical sponsors of which include General Mills, Land O’Lakes, Target and other firms. In this three-day competition, hosted in November 2015 at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, teams from eight leading MBA programs are presented with a strategic brand management challenge currently faced by a partner company. The teams have 30 hours to develop a structured case analysis and original recommendations, which they then present to a panel of expert judges.

New Center Could Make Anderson Go-To Source for Marketing, Data Analytics
The study of marketing at Anderson got a major shot in the arm just a year ago with the launch of a sparkling new marketing center. A $10 million gift from Anderson Professor Emeritus Donald Morrison and his wife Sherie, a distinguished professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, established the Morrison Family Center for Marketing Studies and Data Analytics in April 2015. The vision for the new center is to serve as a global resource to enable academics and practitioners to use data analytical tools to understand consumer markets and behaviors. “Marketing isn’t just about creative thinking today,” Don Morrison said in a statement about the center’s launch. “It includes more quantitative research that incorporates the art of econometrics, big data, psychology, behavioral research—all under the umbrella of ‘marketing studies.’”

Getting Anderson MBAs the Marketing Jobs They Seek
Of course, a school can have all the courses, student organizations, top faculty and fancy new centers it wants—but the true measure applicants care most about is whether or not Anderson students are finding the post-MBA jobs they want. Anderson’s Parker Career Management Center (CMC) features advisors specifically aligned with the marketing function to help students targeting marketing roles have a clear understanding of the landscape, facilitate outreach and informational interviews—including with the Anderson alumni network—and prepare for marketing interviews. These advisors also provide resume and cover letter review, as well as job offer evaluation and negotiations. First-year students are also grouped into a marketing-focused Anderson Career Team (ACT). As part of the Marketing ACT, students meet with guest speakers, share contacts, experience and motivation through the internship search process, and gain valuable guidance from second-year ACT coaches, who have emerged from the career search process with top job offers.

Though students entering marketing functions at Anderson has dipped just slightly from its all-time high of 29 percent, this year’s 28.2 percent still far outpaces any other job function Anderson students are seeking post-MBA. It also dwarfs almost every other leading business school. According to the school’s published employment report for 2015, companies including Mattel, Google, Apple and Amazon each hired between 10 and 15 Anderson students as either full-time employees or summer interns, and Fox, General Mills and Walt Disney each took between five and nine Anderson students. For an example of an alumnus putting his Anderson-honed marketing know-how to work, check out this recent profile of Hulu CEO Michael Hopkins (MBA, ’01).

Also Tops in Marketing: Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business

Leaving Los Angeles behind, the next stop in our MBA marketing programs all-star tour is Bloomington, Indiana, home to Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Kelley, like Anderson, sends more of its graduates into marketing than any other function. For the Class of 2015, 27.5 percent went into marketing and sales, compared to the 25.1 percent who headed into finance and the 22.8 percent who headed into consulting.

These statistics aren’t surprising when you take a closer look at the school. Kelley has developed a solid infrastructure for students interested in marketing. At Kelley, first-year MBA students choose an “academy,” which provides additional access to specific activities, consulting projects, career coaches, company treks and mentorship opportunities related to their chosen field. Students interested in marketing can choose from several relevant academies, including the Business Marketing Academy and the Consumer Marketing Academy. Beyond being part of these academies, Kelley students can also major in marketing, which involves completing required courses in marketing performance and productivity analysis as well as marketing strategy and strategy simulation. Once these are completed, there are 17 electives from which to choose, ranging from courses like “Managing Advertising and Sales Promotion” and “Dynamic Modeling of Customer Data” to courses on digital marketing, global marketing and “Special Topics in Marketing,” which delves into functional theories related to social media including network theory, game theory and collective intelligence social media.

Another course unique to Kelley is called “Bloomington Brands (B2).” B2 is actually the brand management team for Osmocote® Plant Food, a best-selling brand for the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. But get this: It’s composed entirely of Kelley MBA students. Interested students interview for positions in the their first year and work on the brand for two semesters. While Scotts owns the trademark and provides essential business functions, Kelley students do all of the marketing—from brand strategy to consumer communications, from pricing to promotions to packaging. The real-world on-the-job training Kelley students obtain through B2 has helped propel many marketing careers. “B2’s brand managers have landed high-profile positions with Scotts, Colgate, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Kraft, Nationwide, General Mills and Kellogg,” the school reports.

The marketing faculty at Kelley, meanwhile, includes 35 professors, assistant professors and lecturers who bringing a wide range of expertise to their students. Associate Professor of Marketing Lopo Rego, who teaches the core course in marketing that all Kelley students complete, is most focused on topics like the interface between marketing and finance, customer satisfaction and brand equity. Professor Ray Burke, meanwhile, brings expertise in marketing research, shopper behavior, retailing and data mining. And then there’s Senior Lecturer Laura Buchholz, whose research interests include creativity, design, synthetic thinking, consumer behavior and social responsibility in business.

Marketing Beyond the Classroom at Kelley
The Kelley Marketing Club (KMC) is the largest student club at the business school. Beyond a traditional array of offerings designed to help provide marketing students with access to recruiters and to prepare those students for interviews, the KMC also puts on a range of unique activities throughout the year, including a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Speaker Series, a Super Bowl Ad Analysis and something called the Marketing Madness Competition.

Kelley is also home to the Center for Brand Leadership, which nurtures partnerships with leading corporations and publishes path-breaking brand management research. Its current corporate sponsors include Nestlé USA, Target, Land O’Lakes, Scotts, Procter & Gamble, ConAgra, Kraft, Whirlpool, Eli Lilly, General Mills, and  Bloomington Brands. Clinical Professor of Marketing Jonlee Andrews, who directs Kelley’s Consumer Marketing Academy, also serves on the center’s faculty.

In terms of helping Kelley graduates secure post-MBA marketing roles, Graduate Career Services counts associate directors focused on each consumer marketing and business marketing. The school’s most recent employment report reveals that top hiring firms in 2015 included 3M, ConAgra, Dow Chemical, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Proctor and Gamble and Target. The median base salary for the 27.5 percent of Kelley students who accepted marketing positions was $102,474, with an average signing bonus of $20,500.

Michigan for Marketing? Ross School of Business Says Yes

The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business also sends a healthy slice of its graduates into marketing roles—21.4 percent according to the school’s 2015 Employment Report. Ross has a long tradition of combining academic learning with hands-on experience, and this is very much true of how it teaches marketing.

All Ross first-year students take “Marketing Management” during the second half of the fall term, which approaches marketing decision-making by focusing first on organizations’ goals and abilities. From there, students learn how organizations set marketing objectives by considering competitors and current and potential customers. When it comes to making decisions about distribution, pricing, products, promotion and services, Ross students analyze the current situation, pinpoint possible challenges and come up with solutions to create or maintain a competitive advantage. Because it’s Ross, after all, students are expected to be hands on—developing cases in their areas of interest and presenting them during in-class case sessions. The end result: Students emerge from this class with the tools they need to analyze marketing programs and make marketing decisions.

Ross Puts Marketing on the MAP
Ross’s signature Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP)—a seven-week requirement of the core curriculum—also has particular value for marketing students. Student teams are paired with companies in the United States and abroad to complete a significant consulting assignment. The teams may work for Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs or nonprofits on projects related to almost any area of business. Students interested in marketing can choose to work with consumer goods and retail companies or to work on a marketing project with a firm in another industry.

Recent MAP challenges have included a team of students performing a landscape assessment of consumer goods products in Brazil to determine greatest growth potential for Procter & Gamble; another team working in White Plains to develop a strategic business plan to help Pepsi Co. generate new, alternative revenue streams; and student teams working in Chicago, Miami, Chile, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic to identify market opportunities for consumer product goods for Kraft Foods Group.

Ross doesn’t offer formal majors, but students can complete varied courses drawn from the marketing department’s full- and half-term courses. Among them: “Sensory Marketing,” “Social Marketing,” “New Product Innovation and Management” and “Marketing Research Design and Analysis.”

Faculty Experts at Ross
The more than 25 professors and lecturers that make up the Ross marketing department conduct research on topics such as consumer self-control, pricing and promotion and the strategy of brand building. The chair of the department, Puneet Manchanda, is best known for his research in building empirical models to solve strategic marketing problems such as resource allocation, launch planning, word-of-mouth marketing and customer relationship management (CRM). Most recently, he has worked on marketing strategy problems in social media confronting the pharmaceutical, hi-technology, gaming, and insurance industries. Several Ross faculty members bring experience as former marketing executives to the classroom; other faculty members are actively involved in current marketing practice through their private consulting projects.

Special Programs and Centers Focused on Marketing at Ross
Ross’s marketing department maintains affiliations with several research centers and initiatives at the University of Michigan, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and the Yaffe Center for Persuasive Communication. Claes Fornell, a Ross professor of business administration, helped found the ACSI, an economic indicator that gauges customer satisfaction with the quality of products and services available to consumers. Its readings are used by more than 230 companies across 47 industries and 10 economic sectors. In addition to measuring quality from the customers’ perspective, the ACSI also assesses the causes and ramifications of customer satisfaction. Academic researchers also utilize the ACSI’s data in studying customer satisfaction dynamics.

Students interested in marketing careers may draw on the resources of the Yaffe Center for Persuasive Communication, which supports research and teaching on persuasive communication. Current events and conferences put on by the center focus on strategic brand management, social media and online marketing.

Marketing Beyond the Classroom at Ross
With more than 300 student members, the Ross Marketing Club is one of the school’s largest organizations. Its main focus is on preparing its members for careers in brand management and for marketing-focused positions in healthcare, technology, consulting and other industries. To this end, the club hosts guest speakers, information sessions, recruiting preparation activities, “Day in the Life” trips to company headquarters and other activities.

One of the Marketing Club’s largest and most anticipated annual events is the Marketing Symposium, featuring panels, breakout sessions, industry speakers and a career fair. The 2015 symposium, entitled “Big Data: Leveraging Constant Content for Marketing,” featured Clive Sirkin, Kimberly-Clark Corporation chief marketing officer, as one of its keynote speakers. Companies sponsoring the 2015 symposium included Kimberly-Clark, Land O’Lakes, Mars, Dow, Walmart, and SC Johnson, among many others.

In addition, the Ross Luxury Goods & Retail Club (LGR) serves students interested in marketing positions within the retail and luxury industries. The club focuses on apparel, non-apparel, mass merchandising, retail consulting, retail manufacturing and luxury retailing, and prepares members for all functions within these sectors. The club’s event list includes alumni networking opportunities, guest speakers, corporate presentations and company visits.

Finally, Ross marketing students also benefit from the Marketing Lab, a student-led initiative designed to prepare students for real-world marketing careers by giving them access to important data tools to perform analysis of in-market data. The tools are the Nielsen point-of-sale scanner data and Tracx social media listening analytics tool. The school’s website boasts that Ross is the only business school with access to these tools.

Getting Ross Students into Marketing Roles
Through Ross Career Services (RCS), Ross students have access to individual counseling as well as workshops, formal recruiting opportunities. In addition, the school’s Thursday evening Happy Hours provide a more casual venue for networking with recruiters.

Top firms hiring Ross students for marketing roles are spread across CPG firms, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, tech companies and retail companies. Among them: Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Medtronic, Abbott Laboratories, Amazon, Google, Target and Exxon Mobile.
According to the school’s published employment figures, the median starting salary for the 21.4 percent of the Ross Class of 2015 that went into marketing was $105,000. Of those, 87.8 percent also reported a median signing bonus of $25,000 and another 10 percent reported other median compensation of $10,500.

As you can see, top MBA programs for marketing can be found in all corners of the United States, from the East Coast to the West and several points in between. Though we haven’t spotlighted them here, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, UT’s McCombs School of Business, and Duke’s Fuqua School of Business also place high numbers of its graduates into marketing positions. Haas sent 14.4 percent of the Class of 2015 into marketing roles; McCombs last year sent 15 percent of its class into either brand and product management or other marketing and Fuqua placed 16 percent of its graduates in marketing roles. And where’s there’s strong student interest, you can bet that investment in faculty and curriculum follows.

And so, the good news for the prospective marketers among you is that your options are many!

In case you missed it: Best Business Schools for Marketing: Part I