A RANKING OF BUSINESS SCHOOL PROGRAMS BY PERCENTAGE OF GRADUATES ENTERING THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY IN 2015.

Today's blog post is a follow up to our Best MBA Programs for Finance ranking. It's also our continued attempt at ranking top MBA programs by industry and based on publicly available data.

UC Berkeley Haas comes out on top when it comes to sending graduates (as a percentage of all graduates in 2014) back into the technology industry. UCLA Anderson is second, but it's not even close. Hands down, Haas is the place to be if you're into technology and want to work for a related firm in the industry.

Chart: Best MBA Programs for Technology (2015)

TLDR: Top MBA Programs in Technology and based on percentage of graduates entering the industry in 2014.

Buyer Beware

Now before you get too far into interpreting the numbers, a few words of caution. What we have done is an inaugural attempt at a numerically based ranking and its not perfect. It's based on our interpretation of the numbers put forth by top business schools.

Let us explain. Most MBA career centers report employment numbers according to the categories that we use in our rankings. Some schools break "industry" categories into further sub-categories. Other programs - i.e. Michigan Ross - roll up their industry categories under more general headers like "manufacturing". So you could be a "marketing" professional but be within the manufacturing industry. To be forthright, it's a little confusing. (This is why we have decided to exclude Michigan Ross from some categories until we gather a little more insight into their self-reported numbers.)

None-the-less, we have tried to make sense of it all and to do this we did combine some categories in order to get an apples-to-apples comparison across schools. Clear as mud?

Why we use employment data to rank schools

Our opinion is that recruiting (i.e. who's hiring) drives most programs "investment" decisions - in students, faculty, courses, experiential initiatives, alumni outreach, etc. So to know to what a specific MBA program is really all about, you need to see the end result. In other words, what industries are hiring MBA graduates and from what schools?

We compiled this ranking based on information taken directly from the following MBA employment reports.

Haas http://haas.berkeley.edu/groups/careercenter/reports/14-15ReportSummary.pdf

UCLA Anderson http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/Documents/areas/adm/cmc/2014%20PARKER%20CMC%20Employment%20Report%2002.10.15%20LR.pdf

Stanford GSB https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Stanford%20GSB%20Employment%20Report%202013-14.pdf

MIT Sloan http://mitsloan.mit.edu/pdf/Class_of_2014-intern_employment_report.pdf

HBS http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/mba/data-and-statistics/employment-statistics.html

Wharton http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/your-career/career-statistics.cfm

Kellogg http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/career_employer/employment_statistics.aspx

Chicago Booth http://www.chicagobooth.edu/employmentreport/

Columbia https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/recruiters/employmentreport

NYU Stern http://www.stern.nyu.edu/programs-admissions/full-time-mba/career/employment-statistics

Tuck http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/careers/employment-statistics

Yale SOM http://som.yale.edu/yale-som-connect/recruiting/employment-statistics

Michigan Ross http://michiganross.umich.edu/our-community/recruiters

Duke Fuqua http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/mba_recruiting/recruiting_duke/employment_statistics/

Cornell Johnson http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/Career-Management/Employment-Report-for-Two-Year-MBAs

UVA Darden http://www.darden.virginia.edu/recruiters-companies/hire-an-mba/employment-reports/

Finally, does the world really need another business school ranking?

We think "yes". We've never felt completely comfortable with the rankings because (to our knowledge) the raw data that drives the US News and Businessweek rankings has never been fully disclosed. So we decided to start over and with the very numbers that the school's career centers are reporting via their respective employment reporting.

That being said, we welcome any constructive feedback you may have. Either post your comments below or email us at MBA@amerasiaconsulting.com.