Top 5 MBA Programs for Consumer Products
The Consumer Packaged Goods industry has long brought MBA grads into its ranks, but which programs give you the best shot to land a great job in the industry? Our ranking of top MBA Programs for CPG show which top programs did (and didn’t) make the cut.#1. Indiana University (Kelley)
Composite Score: 100
U.S. News Rank: #22
Cost, 2 Years: $88,920
Total Compensation: $143,303
Average Starting Salary: $98,800
Average Hours/Week: 45
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $42
Average Travel Percent: 25%
Average Satisfaction: 6.0/10
Percent of Grads Entering Consumer Packaged Goods: 17.4%
Top Employers: General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Proctor and Gamble
Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business reported the highest percentage of grads entering CPG positions out of all of the programs analyzed. With placement rates nearly 2.5x average, it’s no surprise that Kelley earned the top spot on our list. Kelley MBAs interested in CPG can get involved with the program’s Center for Brand Leadership and Consumer Marketing Academy.
#2. University of California – Irvine (Paul Merage)
Composite Score: 99
U.S. News Rank: #48
Cost, 2 Years: $97,216
Total Compensation: $142,500
Average Starting Salary: $100,000
Average Hours/Week: 40
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $48
Average Travel Percent: 10%
Average Satisfaction: 8.0/10
Percent of Grads Entering Consumer Packaged Goods: 17%
Top Employers: Mattel, E. & J. Gallo Winery, Unilever
UC Irvine also earned a spot on our list due to way above average placement rates. At 17%, the program sent as many grads into CPG as they did into Consulting. Compensation packages and typical starting salaries are also neck and neck with our top programs.
#3. University of Illinois
Composite Score: 91
U.S. News Rank: #39
Cost, 2 Years: $69,324
Total Compensation: $150,090
Average Starting Salary: $123,500
Average Hours/Week: 40
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $59
Average Travel Percent: 15%
Average Satisfaction: 8.0/10
Percent of Grads Entering Consumer Packaged Goods: 12.50%
Top Employers: The Kellogg Company, Tyson Foods, Johnson & Johnson
MBA graduates from the University of Illinois reported above average salaries when entering positions in the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry. At 12.5%, the program also sent more students than average into these positions. Consumer Products was the 4th most popular industry for Illinois’ class of 2015, and only a few percentage points behind consulting. Perhaps most interestingly, the cost of an Illini MBA is staggeringly low at just ~$70,000 for the full program.
#4. Northwestern University (Kellogg)
Composite Score: 89
U.S. News Rank: #5
Cost, 2 Years: $128,118
Total Compensation: $170,586
Average Starting Salary: $109,750
Average Hours/Week: 48
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $44
Average Travel Percent: 0%
Average Satisfaction: 7.5/10
Percent of Grads Entering Consumer Packaged Goods: 11.80%
Top Employers: Nike, Mars, SC Johnson, Unilever
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management claimed its spot on our list due to high placement rates and compensation packages of $20,000 above average. The number of Kellogg grads entering the CPG industry is increasing each year, and U.S. News ranks the program #1 in Marketing. Kellogg MBAs also have access to an incredibly diverse set of companies recruiting on campus, showing the true power of the school’s brand in the industry.
#5. University of Michigan (Ross)
Composite Score: 78
U.S. News Rank: #12
Cost, 2 Years: $123,180
Total Compensation: $146,986
Average Starting Salary: $103,500
Average Hours/Week: 45
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $44
Average Travel Percent: 3%
Average Satisfaction: 8.7/10
Percent of Grads Entering Consumer Packaged Goods: 9.80%
Top Employers: Clorox, Kimberly-Clark, General Mills
Average starting compensation packages for Ross grads entering the Consumer Products industry are around average, but the program’s above-average placement rates secured their spot on our list. MBA students at Ross interested in Marketing are also the first to have full access to Nielsen’s point-of-sale data and Answers on Demand core platform.
Other top scoring programs for consumer packaged goods:
University of California – Los Angeles (Anderson) (77)
New York University (Stern) (74)
University of Chicago (Booth) (69)
Columbia University (68)
Notes on this analysis:
Industry is defined at the company level, so conglomerates operating in multiple industries will be categorized by their primary driver of revenue. Consumer packaged goods includes the following industries: Consumer Products, Food/Beverage/Tobacco.
All data points are reported by MBA students and alumni for their first full-time job post-MBA.
Certain programs were excluded based on low sample size or incomplete data, including:
Boston University (Questrom), Brigham Young University (Marriott), Brown University, Emory University (Goizueta), George Washington University, Rutgers University, Syracuse University, University of Notre Dame (Mendoza), University of Maryland (Smith), Washington University in St. Louis (Olin), University of Minnesota (Carlson), Dartmouth University (Tuck), Boston College (Carroll), Carnegie Mellon (Tepper), University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler), Stanford University, Yale University
Programs included in the analysis:
University of Chicago (Booth), Northwestern University (Kellogg), University of Michigan (Ross), Duke University (Fuqua), Indiana University (Kelley), University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), University of Texas (McCombs), Georgetown University (McDonough), University of California – Los Angeles (Anderson), University of Illinois, New York University (Stern), Columbia University, Cornell University (Johnson), Harvard Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan), Pennsylvania State University (Smeal), University of California – Berkeley (Haas), University of California – Irvine (Merage), University of Virginia (Darden), Vanderbilt University (Owen)
A note on methodology:
These companies have been ranked on data from MBAs in areas such as compensation, average hours per week, and satisfaction. All data points are from MBA-related data, i.e. internships or full-time jobs obtained during or as a result of pursuing an MBA. At this time, our data only takes quantitative metrics into consideration, so topics such as “program prestige” are not included. We indexed the following metrics versus our all-company averages, with even weight distribution:
- Total compensation potential: includes salary, performance bonus potential, signing bonus, stock compensation, and miscellaneous compensation.
- Average starting salary: user reported base salary
- Percent of graduates entering the industry: the number of students entering jobs in the industry for each program was compared to an all-program average.
Once indexed and compiled into a composite index, we scored on a 100-point scale.
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