Iowa State is known for many of its programs’ achievements, one being the job placement of the masters of business administration graduate students.

For spring MBA graduates, recruitment statistics are at an all-time high and so are job placement numbers.

About 90 percent of the students expected to graduate in the MBA class of spring 2013 have already accepted job offers.

The hope is that the number will increase to 97 percent in at least three months after graduation, said Mark Peterson, director of Graduate Career Services for the College of Business.

U.S. News & World Report has Iowa State ranked third out of 10 MBA programs for the previous two years on job placement after graduation.

“The Best MBA Programs for Jobs” is based on an underlining number of MBA schools’ employment data that is the percentage of employed students within three months of graduation.

“U.S News publishes one of the biggest rankings of all graduate programs, and here in the U.S., their ranking of graduate business schools’ MBA programs is one of the most respected ones,” Peterson said.

The MBA program at Iowa State was established in 1985.

Peterson is able to work closely with each student based on his or her preference due to the program only serving 80 students this academic year.

The school “works carefully to bring in solid students to meet business school requirements,” Peterson said in regards to who is accepted into the program.

Remaining active and maintaining relationships with alumni is key to allowing students to have network abilities within major companies. Peterson said alumni are often willing to help current students with their job searches.

Alumni impact the job placement greatly for perspective students by telling their own company to recruit from Iowa State.

Two top companies that have hired new MBA students are John Deere and General Mills. Peterson said John Deere gave 33 percent of the full-time job offers, and General Mills hired 25 percent of the graduating class.

John Deere is the single biggest employer for the MBA students after graduation.

Students who have completed internships with a company are more likely to be given a job by that employer.

Jeffery Emrich, graduate student in business administration, knows first-hand about the success rate of job placement for Iowa State MBA students; Emrich has accepted a job offer from Wells Fargo in the audit department.

Emrich said the “education speaks for itself” about his success in obtaining a job prior to graduating with the same company he held an internship with.

Working with teams is one aspect that Emrich enjoyed about the program.

“It’s very team-based. Working with teams is something I enjoy and it is also something that helped me,” Emrich said. 

With career and internship fairs frequently being held around the Iowa State campus, the MBA Business Program is not worried about its prospective students receiving job offers prior to graduation.

“We have always been really consistent with a 97 percent employment after three months of graduation,” Peterson said.