BYU's MBA program 16th in nation

BYU's MBA program is ranked 16th in the nation for return on investment in Forbes Magazine's biennial list of best business schools in the publication's Aug. 24 issue, two spots ahead of its position in 2007, the last time Forbes published the list.

Forbes compiles the rankings by comparing the salaries of MBA students before school and five years after graduation.

The magazine reports the total return on investment after subtracting what a student's salary would have been and the total cost of attending, including tuition and foregone compensation.

BYU MBA graduates gained $41,000 over five years by attending graduate school, breaking even after 3.9 years. Their average salary five years after graduating was $105,000, compared to $45,000 before entering the program. The BYU program had the lowest tuition of any school in the top 20.

Stanford ranked first on the list, with a $85,000 return on investment, followed by Dartmouth at $80,000 and Harvard at $79,000.

Complete rankings of the best business schools are available in the Aug. 24 issue of Forbes or online at www.forbes.com/bschools.

— Marc Haddock