NC State’s College of Management is Ranked 25th in Fortune’s ‘Getting Hired’ Survey
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Anna Rzewnicki, College of Management, 919/515-6118
Feb. 23, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The North Carolina State University College of Management’s MBA program placed 25th in Fortune magazine’s ‘50 Best Business Schools for Getting Hired.’
Fortune and its web partner, QS, developed the ranking based on data from 111 top accredited U.S. business schools in QS’s Top MBA Scorecard. Schools were ranked equally on their reputation with recruiters and on their strength of career placement.
The survey reports that NC State MBA graduates had an average of two job offers, and an average salary of about $73,000, with 87 percent being employed within three months of graduation.
“NC State students receive an education that not only gets them ready for a career, but helps them understand their place in the world, and prepares them to be leaders,” said Chancellor James Oblinger. “The fact that the MBA program produces strong graduates who do well in the marketplace is indicative of our university wide dedication to producing great outcomes.”
“This ranking reflects well on the college’s commitment to prepare students not only through our curriculum but also through the services provided by our dedicated career resources staff,” said Steve Allen, associate dean for graduate programs and research at the college.
“We are particularly pleased to be recognized in this ranking, as well as in news coverage this past year in the Wall Street Journal and Business Week for our curricula in services management and innovation management,” Allen said. “This recognition is significant because ours is a small, young MBA program.” The college was established in 1992 and began offering an MBA in 2002. It currently has 330 MBA students enrolled.
“Rankings are one measure of a school’s value,” said Ira R. Weiss, dean of the college. And this one, he said, “verifies that our focus on the management of technology and innovation is what the job market is seeking in MBA candidates.
“It also is a testament to the high quality of the students admitted to our technology-focused program, and to our great faculty who really push those students to achieve,” Weiss said.
“We also credit our career resources staff, and the faculty in our centers and initiatives who have been establishing relationships with local, national and global companies, providing real-world experience for our students and helping to connect our students with employers seeking their unique skills set,” Allen said.
The curriculum includes a unique Career and Managerial Effectiveness course that helps students build the ‘soft skills’ in high demand by employers today. During the year-long required course, students focus on developing an effective presentation style and other communications skills, and prepare for their careers by sharpening their networking and interview skills.
Students select from eight concentrations of studies designed to prepare them for careers in biopharma management, innovation management, entrepreneurship and technology commercialization, supply chain management, and services management, as well as the more traditional fields of financial, marketing and information technology management. Many of the courses incorporate project-based learning that pairs student teams with companies to solve real problems.
“When you have an academic program that pairs the next generation of leaders with real companies, to work on real problems, you can see what a real impact that makes on our students, and the value they bring to their future employers,” Allen said.
About NC State’s College of Management
NC State University's College of Management was created in 1992 to focus on the management of technology while leveraging the university's strengths in science, technology and engineering. The academic curricula, faculty scholarship and outreach activities emphasize the economy's relationship among business, technology and globalization. The college offers undergraduate programs in business management, accounting and economics; full-time and evening MBA programs; a master of accounting (MAC); master's and doctoral degrees in economics; and executive education.
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