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UW business grads cash in

An education at the University of Wisconsin is one of the best investments business students can make, according to BusinessWeek magazine.

BusinessWeek magazine recently named UW the No. 4 school in the nation for fastest return of investment in the Master of Business Administration program. Brigham Young University, Michigan State University and the University of South Carolina took the ranking's top three spots.

BusinessWeek calculated the "time of payback" data by looking at total tuition — which is $186,799 for UW's MBA program — and dividing that number by first-year salary premiums, according to the BusinessWeek website. That number reveals the time it takes for graduates to earn back their tuition.

With an MBA from UW, the payback time is only 4.41 years. This figure was topped only by Brigham Young, Michigan State and South Carolina, and trounced the pricier MBA programs like Harvard and MIT, which would take nearly 15 years to pay back, according to BusinessWeek's website.

The simple mathematics of the investment is enough to attract students to the UW program, according to Michael Knetter, dean of the UW School of Business.

"You get more for what you pay for if you come to our MBA program," he said. "I think we're an affordable business school that works hard and creates opportunities for our students."

The UW Business School recently restructured its MBA program, Knetter said, so students are placed both in a specific program and in a general core curriculum.

The goal of the restructured program is to have students commit to a particular business specialty and provide them with "real-world training," Knetter said.

However, according to Knetter, the school constantly struggles to attract faculty amid budget constraints.

"It hasn't been an easy time to recruit faculty at Madison because of our position with the state budget," he said. "The demand for business faculty worldwide is booming and wages are going up rapidly, much faster than our state budget allocation."

BusinessWeek also ranked UW No. 27 for best overall undergraduate business school in the nation, noting students have a "work hard, play hard" mentality.

Mark Browne, associate dean of undergraduate programs at the UW School of Business, said he attributes the success of the MBA program to the strong bond between the university and job recruiters.

Browne said the competitive nature of the entrance process correlates with the market's high demand for UW business students.

"There is a strong demand by students who want to study in the business school, and they have been heavily recruited," Browne said. "The salary levels and bonuses just keep going up."

Knetter said the ranking should be taken with a grain of salt because the undergraduate rankings are largely based on surveys, and do not correspond to a similar ranking reported by U.S. News and World Report.

Although the school strives to consistently improve and compete with other universities, Knetter said achieving high rankings is not his top priority.

"I am proud of the facts, but we're constantly trying to make the structure of our programs better so that we can attract better students and provide them with better opportunities every year," Knetter said. "If we do that, the rankings will take care of themselves."