A recent paper by Jeffery Pfeffer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business cites studies that show almost no correlation between an MBA and a higher salary. Pfeffer also found there was no correlation between grade point average and salary.
These findings may indicate that the skills acquired in business school have little to do with the those needed to succeed in the real world. Pfeffer attributes this to qualities such as charisma, drive and simple experience, none of which can be taught in the classroom.
There is no sign that this data has had an effect on seniors and alumni. Instead, the state of the economy has actually led to "slightly more interest in graduate schools in general," said Dean Rosalind Hoffa, who works as director of the career center.
Part of this is due to a decrease in on-campus recruiting. "Firms who might be looking for bright graduates have had to cut back," Hoffa explained."They are going to focus on recruiting at larger universities and business schools."
Professor of Economics Geoffrey Woglom has seen similar changes in the job prospects of recent graduates. He tells the story of one economics major in the class of 2000 who received a job offer by Thanksgiving of 1999. "He got three raises before he even began working in July," said Woglom.
The next year another senior received a similar job offer in the fall and was fired with a severance package before graduation.
Getting a job right out of college is "no longer as much of a foregone conclusion," said Hoffa. "[As a result,] students who would look at graduate school anyway look at it a little earlier," Hoffa added.
Very few, however, go to business school straight out of college. "Most business schools look for at least two years experience outside the college environment, in a real world working environment," said Hoffa.
As a result, there has been very little change in the number of alumni contacting the career center for guidance on business schools.
Dean Hoffa also pointed out a factor that the Pfeffer study could not measure. "Graduates of business schools are able to tap into the alumni body as a powerful networking tool," she said. "These kinds of intangibles can be extremely important."
"I'm definitely going to business school in the future," said David Nuss '03, an economics major. "It's more of a signaling thing than an educational move. It's common knowledge that ... people go [to business school] to network and to form connections."
"I've heard about [the study]," said Jeffrey Bogino '03, who is
also considering business school.
"I think that what happens ... [is that] people have plans to work for a few years before applying to business school. Then after [the time] is up they have to decide whether they really want to go to school and then basically have to start all over. If they're just going to go back to the same field they have to decide whether an MBA is going to help them more than five years of work experience."