Release Date: Thursday, January 27, 2000

FORBES AND THE FINANCIAL TIMES RANK TERRY COLLEGE MBA PROGRAM AMONG TOP B-SCHOOLS FOR QUALITY AND 'RETURN ON INVESTMENT'

ATHENS, Ga. — The MBA program at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business offers a high "return on investment" to its students, according to a first-ever ranking by Forbes magazine.

The Terry College MBA program generated the 11th biggest return on investment among the nation's top "regional business schools." Wake Forest University topped the regional school list, and Harvard University was rated the No. 1 national business school.

To calculate the worth of an MBA, Forbes compared the salary gains generated by having an MBA to the cost of getting it. The magazine's editors started by surveying 1994 graduates from the top business schools, asking them to anonymously disclose their compensation just before matriculating, after graduation and four-and-a-half years later. Forbes compared those numbers to what the same students would have earned without MBA degrees, assuming that their salary growth would have been only half as much.

Five years after graduating, the typical Terry MBA graduate was $29,000 ahead, according to Forbes' calculation. And Terry MBA alumni were able to recoup all their investment (two years of foregone salary and tuition costs) in just four years of net income gain after graduation.

The surveyed Terry MBA graduates reported a pre-MBA salary of $26,000 (median) and a post-MBA salary for 1998 of $80,000.

Forbes based part of their cost calculation for the Terry MBA program on the price of out-of-state tuition for a two-year degree ($23,500). But Dean P. George Benson said the actual cost for the majority of Terry MBA students is considerably more affordable than that.

"Half of our students are Georgia residents and do not pay out-of-state tuition. But more importantly, the Terry College awards merit-based graduate assistantships to a higher percentage of MBA students than any other business school we know of, and those assistantships cover the full cost of tuition. If you add that fact into the Forbes formula, then the return on investment for a Terry College MBA may be better than any public business school in the country."

Compared with UGA's net income gain of $29,000, the five-year payback for 1994 MBAs from Emory University put them $8,000 ahead. The five-year gain for Georgia State University MBAs was $30,000. No other Georgia business schools were included in the Forbes list.

The highest return on investment, according to Forbes, was a Harvard MBA. Its grads were $101,000 ahead five years after graduating. The five-year payback from other Southeastern MBA programs making the list was: Wake Forest ($53,000), Duke ($29,000), University of North Carolina ($21,000), Vanderbilt ($17,000) and University of Florida ($12,000).

Financial Times' International MBA Rankings

Another MBA ranking was released this week by the Financial Times - their second annual analysis of global MBA programs. The Terry College of Business ranked 59th internationally. Among public U.S. business schools, the Terry College is the 16th highest rated MBA program, according to the London-based financial newspaper.

Also singled out for distinction were the college's programs in Entrepreneurship and Information Technology - both of which were chosen Top 10 in the world, based on recommendations by business school graduates who answered the Financial Times questionnaire.

The entrepreneurship program is housed in the Management Department, and most of the IT curriculum is taught by faculty in the Management Information Systems Department.

The Financial Times ranked MBA programs worldwide on 20 criteria, including graduate salaries, career progress and placement success, percentage of female faculty and students, percentage of international faculty and students, and a faculty research rating. The ranking was compiled from two questionnaires - one sent to business schools and the other sent to graduates of the class of 1996 - and from an independent assessment of research. The ranking a school received was determined by its performance in three broad areas: value and quality of the MBA - in particular its purchasing power in the marketplace - diversity and research.

"We are pleased to be consistently ranked among the top 20 public business schools in the United States," Benson said. "It speaks well for faculty and staff, and acknowledges the value that the Terry College adds to its students and their careers."

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Related Links:

1. Forbes article: "The Bottom Line on B-schools" http://www.forbes.com/forbes/00/0207/6503100a.htm
2. Forbes ranking of "regional business schools" http://www.forbes.com/forbes/00/0207/6503100tab3.htm
3. Financial Times article: http://www.ft.com/ftsurveys/sp888e.htm
4. Financial Times ranking of the top 75 global MBA programs: http://www.ft.com/ftsurveys/pdf/bsedtop75.pdf (Adobe's Acrobat Reader needed)

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