When students first enter a college campus fresh out of high school, the plan is usually simple: Go to class, graduate and get a job – all in four or five years. Plans for graduate school are virtually nonexistent.

However, recent research shows that students who dream of making as much money as possible in their respective fields may want to consider graduate school after all.

Ronald Ackerman, program coordinator of the College of Business graduate program, said the current academic environment is lucrative for students to consider obtaining a master’s degree, such as a Master of Business Administration.

“With the shrinking pool of MBA students seeking employment and a robust job market, it is a great time to be a full-time MBA student,” Ackerman said. “It has become difficult for us to even fill all the interview spots for MBA students.”

At other graduate schools across the country, many students opt to take MBA courses online or after work rather than commit to a full-time program; however, at Iowa State, that is not the case.

“At Iowa State, over 140 employed students are enrolled in the part-time MBA [program]; there are about 70 enrolled in our full-time MBA program,” Ackerman said.

Kimberly Wayne, graduate student in business administration, first decided on pursuing her degree when, after working for a few years, she realized she wanted to delve into the management and technical arena. After attaining her Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University and working as a continuous improvement specialist for Goodrich Turbine Fuel Technologies, the company offered to pay for her education in addition to her continual working for them.

Wayne describes the MBA as being a “versatile” degree that is very “discussion-related,” but advises students who are interested in applying to have very good time-management skills and to work in the industry for at least two years and gain understanding of how a company functions before pursuing the program.

“If you don’t have any experience in usage of your knowledge, your expertise is limited,” Wayne said

A record number of students have started master’s programs this fall, according to a New York Times article. The explosion of these programs has less to do with revenue and more to do with the marketplace pressures on students to get higher degrees and credentials.

“It is definitely a seller’s market right now,” Ackerman said.

For graduates of the ISU MBA program, 75 percent of graduates receive at least one job offer by the time of graduation, and 97 percent of graduates receive at least one job offer within 3 months.

“This high employment rate ranks 20th among MBA programs nationwide by US News & World Report,” Ackerman said.

The average salary being offered to graduates is $57,848, with between $5,000 and $6,500 being added on as compensation. About 40 percent of students who have entered the program this fall have an undergraduate degree in engineering, while about 27 percent of them have undergraduate degrees in business.

Although tuition prices for an MBA can range from about $4,500 for in-state students to $9,800 for out-of-state per semester for full-time students, Ackerman said financial assistance is available to many ISU MBA students through graduate assistantships and merit-based scholarships.