U.S. News ranks Full-time MBA #20, Evening MBA #10; #1 for Placement of top schools
In 2020, the Foster School of Business begins construction of Founders Hall (design concept above) to keep pace with learning innovation and new program growth
U.S. News rankings results affirm continued excellence
U.S. News & World Report ranks the Foster MBA #20 of more than 360 business programs in the nation in the Best Business Schools 2021 rankings. Foster’s Full-time MBA Program outpaced the top 90 schools with 98.9% job placement and continues to deliver outstanding career results for graduates, who reported an average salary and bonus of $145,115.
U.S. News recognized the Evening MBA Program‘s advancement two spots to the top 10 Part-time MBA Programs in the nation. Buoyed by shared curriculum, student life, and career management services with the high-quality Full-time MBA program, Foster’s Evening MBA attracts applicants from across the U.S.
The school’s Executive MBA Program moved up from #23 to #18 in the country, recognizing its rigorous yet collaborative learning environment for highly experienced professionals.
Launched in 2017, Foster’s Hybrid MBA Program rocketed to #10 in the Online MBA Rankings and now enrolls students from more than 15 states across the country.
In specialty rankings, the Foster School was recognized among the best in Entrepreneurship (#16), Information Systems (#17), and Accounting (#25).
Better together. Better tomorrow
The Foster Full-time MBA now ranks in top 20 across three major U.S. rankings: U.S. News (#20) Businessweek (#16), and The Economist, (#17 of U.S. Schools). A new building—Founders Hall—breaks ground in 2020 and continues the school’s commitment to dynamic learning experiences, and creating connections between talented students, expert faculty, and engaged employers.
“As Foster continues to excel as a top-20 school, It is wonderful to see the U.S. News rankings reflect our strong commitment to inclusion, innovation, leadership development, and connecting students to the companies they want to work for.”
Frank Hodge
Orin and Janet Smith Endowed Dean of the UW Foster School of Business
Outstanding job placement
Nearly all Foster MBA graduates—98.9%—secured jobs within 3 months of graduation, the best placement rate among the elite schools. The majority of Foster MBA graduates accepted positions in technology, consulting, manufacturing, financial services, and retail. In consulting and finance, salaries averaged more than $130,000 per year and more than two-thirds of graduates in all sectors received a signing bonus averaging $28,740.
Marc Ethier of Poets & Quants analyzed job placement rates at the U.S. News top 50 schools and writes, “At the top, as it has been each year since 2017, is Washington Foster…[which] was so far ahead that it still notched the best mark of any B-school in the U.S. News top 50.”
Preparing for competitive careers starts before day one
Known for its high touch and personalized approach for each student, Foster’s MBA Career Management team offers an innovative portfolio of world-class career services, strong partnerships with students, and relationships with iconic companies, such as Accenture, Amazon, Deloitte, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Nike, Salesforce, and T-Mobile. Students have access to expert career coaches, a famed MBA Mentor program, and professional development activities like Radical Collaboration and award-winning Brand Essence. This leads to positive impressions of the Foster School graduates by recruiters, as evidenced in the Bloomberg Businessweek Recruiter Survey.
A tight-knit community that supports every student’s success
Success is a team sport at Foster. The small program attracts contributors who help each other complete challenging projects, prepare for interviews, and give back to nonprofits through the Challenge for Charity. The small cohort encourages active collaboration and creates space for many leaders to solve problems together—from business case competitions to summiting the Northwest’s famous peaks.
“The Pacific Northwest is an undeniably inspiring natural playground that balances the thriving tech economy that keeps the city humming during the week. I can’t think of a better place to earn my MBA because nowhere else that I know of can offer me such rich personal benefits so close to so many companies that are meaningfully impacting the way business is done around the world.”
Carly Presho-Dunne
Meet Washington Foster’s Class of 2021, Poets & Quants
Ranking MBA programs by fit
To help MBA applicants identify programs that best fit their priorities, Foster created the MBA Rankings Calculator. MBA candidates can access rankings data from U.S. News, Businessweek, Financial Times and Forbes to create their own custom ranking. This free tool leverages school performance data, including salary and placement, student selectivity, faculty research, low average debt, return on investment, and more.
Create your Top 30 MBA Ranking.
Learn more about Foster’s current rankings.
Related stories:
Financial Times ranks Foster #1 in U.S. for MBA jobs, #6 in world for research
Businessweek ranks Foster #16 of Best Business Schools in the U.S.
Economist ranks Foster MBA #20 in the world, #1 for job placement in U.S.
Princeton Review ranks Foster #2 Resources for Women, #6 Marketing, #10 Operations, #13 Entrepreneurship
