Rankings

Forbes Survey Ranks Tippie MBA Program Among Best in Country

The University of Iowa's Tippie School of Management scored high in rankings by Forbes magazine this week, placing it among the nation's top-ranked graduate MBA programs.

Forbes placed the Tippie MBA program as the fifth best public university graduate management program in the country, 16th overall. The magazine said Tippie has the best public MBA program in the Big 10 and second best overall, putting it behind only Northwestern University.

The survey also showed that Tippie MBA graduates took the least amount of time to pay off tuition and other costs after graduation because of the higher salaries they commanded with their degrees. Typical Tippie MBA graduates take just three years for their return on investment to pay off, the quickest pay-off of any graduate-level management program in the country.

The Forbes ranking was based on surveys sent to 18,500 alumni of 102 MBA programs, with 22 percent of the alumni responding to the survey. The survey compared a student's pre-enrollment income to his or her annual income for five years after graduation, then factored in tuition and foregone salary while in school to determine how long it took students to pay back their costs.

Gary Gaeth, associate dean for the Tippie School of Management, said the Forbes' methodology of determining return on investment reflects the true value of the Tippie MBA program for its students.

"We provide one of the finest MBA experiences in the world, in a world-class environment, and this gives our graduates a solid foundation for a successful career," he said.

The only other Big 10 school to rank in the top 20 was Michigan State University.