BUILDING YOUR NETWORK
One of the most valuable components of a business degree is the professional network and career development that comes with it.
To see which schools excel in this area, we asked alumni three questions:
- How would you appraise the business program’s efforts to bring you into contact with practicing professionals, including your school’s alumni network, in the business community?
- How would you judge the business program’s alumni network and connections that can help you throughout your career?
- How accessible and willing were the school’s alumni in helping you connect with potential employers?
School |
Professional connections |
Alumni Network |
Alumni connections to employers |
Average |
| University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 9.54 | 9.69 | 9.52 | 9.58 |
| University of Virginia (McIntire) | 9.5 | 9.63 | 9.54 | 9.56 |
| University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 9.3 | 9.79 | 9.41 | 9.50 |
| Cornell University (Dyson SC John) | 9.24 | 9.6 | 9.45 | 9.43 |
| Villanova University | 9.53 | 9.25 | 9.28 | 9.35 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller) | 9.51 | 9.25 | 9.27 | 9.34 |
| Texas Christian University (Neeley) | 9.43 | 9.09 | 9.33 | 9.28 |
| University of Southern California (Marshall) | 9.18 | 9.36 | 9.3 | 9.28 |
| Georgetown University (McDonough) | 9.18 | 9.3 | 9.3 | 9.26 |
| University of Michigan (Ross) | 9.08 | 9.23 | 9.14 | 9.15 |
| Indiana University (Kelley) | 9.22 | 9.1 | 9.03 | 9.12 |
| Texas A&M University (Mays) | 9.1 | 9.2 | 9.04 | 9.11 |
| Fordham University (Gabelli) | 9.2 | 9.01 | 9.01 | 9.07 |
| Bucknell University | 8.82 | 9.12 | 9.26 | 9.07 |
| Southern Methodist University (Cox) | 8.95 | 9.18 | 8.98 | 9.04 |
| Marian University (Byrum) | 9.21 | 8.84 | 8.84 | 8.96 |
| Wake Forest University | 8.97 | 8.97 | 8.94 | 8.96 |
| University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) | 8.8 | 8.9 | 9.02 | 8.91 |
| University of Illinois (Gies) | 8.94 | 8.83 | 8.8 | 8.86 |
| Providence College | 8.72 | 8.93 | 8.83 | 8.83 |
| Emory University (Goizueta) | 9.16 | 8.56 | 8.54 | 8.75 |
| New York University (Stern) | 8.92 | 8.67 | 8.39 | 8.66 |
| Seton Hall University (Stillman) | 8.94 | 8.68 | 8.29 | 8.64 |
| Miami University (Farmer) | 8.74 | 8.63 | 8.52 | 8.63 |
| University of Pittsburgh | 8.96 | 8.53 | 8.38 | 8.62 |
| Elon University (Love) | 8.63 | 8.52 | 8.59 | 8.58 |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | 8.47 | 8.54 | 8.63 | 8.55 |
| Michigan State University (Broad) | 8.67 | 8.53 | 8.42 | 8.54 |
| University of Miami (Herbert) | 8.67 | 8.39 | 8.55 | 8.54 |
| University of Georgia (Terry) | 8.76 | 8.36 | 8.44 | 8.52 |
| Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) | 8.56 | 8.35 | 8.62 | 8.51 |
| Binghamton University | 8.8 | 8.29 | 8.4 | 8.50 |
| Hofstra University (Zarb) | 8.58 | 8.42 | 8.32 | 8.44 |
| University of Richmond (Robins) | 8.62 | 8.38 | 8.31 | 8.44 |
| Roger Williams University (Gabelli) | 8.31 | 8.43 | 8.54 | 8.43 |
| University of Tennessee (Haslam) | 8.89 | 8.35 | 7.96 | 8.40 |
| William & Mary (Mason) | 8.77 | 8.08 | 8.19 | 8.35 |
| Purdue University (Daniels) | 8.45 | 8.28 | 8.08 | 8.27 |
| Lehigh University | 7.94 | 8.33 | 8.52 | 8.26 |
| Lipscomb University | 8.94 | 8.18 | 7.65 | 8.26 |
| Syracuse University (Whitman) | 8.28 | 8.43 | 8.05 | 8.25 |
| University of Houston (Bauer) | 8.81 | 7.93 | 7.95 | 8.23 |
| University of Dayton | 8.56 | 7.81 | 8.16 | 8.18 |
| University of Arizona (Eller) | 8.48 | 7.92 | 7.97 | 8.12 |
| Ithaca College | 8.29 | 8.11 | 7.86 | 8.09 |
| Hult International Business School | 8.51 | 8.07 | 7.58 | 8.05 |
| Loyola Marymount University | 8.5 | 7.6 | 7.97 | 8.02 |
| University of the Pacific (Eberhardt) | 8.45 | 7.9 | 7.65 | 8.00 |
| Duquesne University (Palumbo Donahue) | 8.38 | 7.88 | 7.71 | 7.99 |
| Ohio University | 8.16 | 7.85 | 7.93 | 7.98 |
| University of North Carolina-Wilmington (Cameron) | 8.61 | 7.83 | 7.48 | 7.97 |
| University of New Hampshire (Paul) | 8.4 | 7.77 | 7.71 | 7.96 |
| Tulane University (Freeman) | 8.19 | 7.82 | 7.78 | 7.93 |
| Northeastern University (D’Amore-McKim) | 8.4 | 7.74 | 7.57 | 7.90 |
| University of Minnesota (Carlson) | 8.2 | 7.53 | 7.89 | 7.87 |
| Florida Southern College | 8.22 | 7.74 | 7.58 | 7.85 |
| University of Washington (Foster) | 8.33 | 7.69 | 7.5 | 7.84 |
| St. John’s University (Tobin) | 8.15 | 7.65 | 7.66 | 7.82 |
| Boston University (Questrom) | 7.88 | 7.71 | 7.53 | 7.71 |
| University of San Diego (Knauss) | 8.05 | 7.76 | 7.26 | 7.69 |
| Drexel University (LeBow) | 8.53 | 7.36 | 7.11 | 7.67 |
| University of Delaware (Lerner) | 7.86 | 7.4 | 7.69 | 7.65 |
| Oregon State University | 7.88 | 7.5 | 7.47 | 7.62 |
| Saint Louis University (Chaifetz) | 8.5 | 7.04 | 7.31 | 7.62 |
| University of Texas at Dallas (Jindal) | 8.23 | 7.21 | 7.26 | 7.57 |
| Rutgers Business School – New Brunswick | 7.89 | 7.4 | 7.38 | 7.56 |
| College of New Jersey | 7.69 | 7.42 | 7.54 | 7.55 |
| Bowling Green State University (Schmidthorst) | 8.25 | 6.92 | 7.42 | 7.53 |
| Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) | 7.73 | 7.23 | 7.55 | 7.50 |
| Seattle University (Albers) | 7.97 | 7.18 | 6.96 | 7.37 |
| University of South Carolina (Darla Moore) | 7.63 | 7.27 | 7.1 | 7.33 |
| Rutgers Business School – Newark | 7.77 | 7.15 | 6.93 | 7.28 |
| Towson University | 7.69 | 7.19 | 6.88 | 7.25 |
| University of Akron | 7.86 | 6.57 | 7.29 | 7.24 |
| Worcester Polytechnic Institute | 7.38 | 7 | 7.25 | 7.21 |
| University of Oklahoma (Price) | 7.37 | 7.02 | 7 | 7.13 |
| Christopher Newport University (Luter) | 7.22 | 7.05 | 7.11 | 7.13 |
| University of Kentucky (Gatton) | 7.83 | 6.78 | 6.75 | 7.12 |
| University of Denver (Daniels) | 7.29 | 6.8 | 7.13 | 7.07 |
| University of Evansville (Schroeder) | 8.13 | 6.57 | 6.38 | 7.03 |
| Northern Illinois University | 8.11 | 6.67 | 6.17 | 6.98 |
| University of Utah (Eccles) | 7.46 | 6.85 | 6.51 | 6.94 |
| Florida International University | 7.4 | 6.76 | 6.44 | 6.87 |
| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Lubar) | 7.57 | 6.57 | 6.29 | 6.81 |
| Texas Tech University (Rawls) | 7 | 6.71 | 6.67 | 6.79 |
| American University (Kogod) | 6.91 | 6.53 | 6.65 | 6.70 |
| Rochester Institute of Technology (Saunders) | 7.65 | 6.31 | 6 | 6.65 |
| Sacred Heart University | 7.06 | 6.41 | 6 | 6.49 |
| University of Michigan-Dearborn | 6.82 | 6.29 | 5.94 | 6.35 |
| San Diego State University | 6.17 | 5.58 | 5.21 | 5.65 |
| University of Texas at Arlington | 4.33 | 3.67 | 4 | 4.00 |
WOULD YOU RECOMMEND YOUR BUSINESS PROGRAM? (Page 1)
WAS THE DEGREE WORTH THE TIME AND COST? (Page 2)
FACULTY QUALITY & ACCESSIBILITY (Page 3)
ADVISING QUALITY (Page 4)
BUILDING A PROFESSIONAL NETWORK (Page 5)
CLIMBING THE LADDER (Page 6)
CAREER OUTCOMES (Page 7)
SKILL DEVELOPMENT (Page 8)
SIGNATURE EXPERIENCE (Page 9)
© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.
