Taking Care of Business

By Caroline Cox

Every year PINK identifies some of the top business schools for women. We all know about the wage gap between the sexes, but it drops from $6,000 to around $1,000 with a business degree, according to the Fuqua Business School at Duke University. Also, with a record number of women starting companies of their own, we know business acumen often separates those who succeed from those who do not.

Though they do not differentiate salary based on gender, we know that overall, women earn less than their male counterparts. The overall unemployment rate is around 10 percent, but for people with a master’s degree, it’s 2.4 percent, according to CNN.

Not sure where to start or whether an MBA or EMBA will be best?

“Don’t go into it blind,” says Joan Coonrod, Assistant Dean Executive MBA Admissions and Marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. “MBA programs are geared towards those who have been in the workplace for three to five years generally. For women who have gained a significant management experience and they want to move into a new area, the EMBA program is probably a better fit for them.”

Want to talk to someone who’s been there? “Get a mentor,” says Coonrod. “Find someone in your company who’s gotten their degree.” She adds that you can also contact the schools to find other women to talk to. “If you feel like you can’t take something else on, you can be put in touch with people who have done it.”

This year PINK takes a look at the best of the best – if you’re considering an EMBA or MBA program, here are the top schools for you.

The Princeton Review called these the “best business schools for women,” based on the percent of students and faculty who are female, and student assessment of resources for female students, how supportive the culture is of female students, whether the business school offers coursework for women entrepreneurs, and whether case study materials for classes proportionately reflect women in business:

• Simmons School of Management
• The George Washington University School of Business
• Macon Eugene W. Stetson School of Business & Economics (at Mercer University)
• State University of New York at Albany School of Business
• Davis Graduate School of Management (at the University of California)
• St. Mary’s University Bill Greehey School of Business
• University of Massachusetts Amherst Isenberg School of Management
• University of Georgia Terry College of Business
• Berkeley Haas School of Business (at the University of California)
• American University Kogod School of Business

This top ten list from Business Week is for you if you’re looking for the top business schools based on student and recruiter surveys, median starting salaries for graduates, the number of graduates admitted to 35 top MBA programs, and high academic quality:

• University of Chicago (Booth)
• Harvard University
• Northwestern University (Kellogg)
• University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
• University of Michigan (Ross)
• Stanford University
• Columbia University
• Duke University (Fuqua)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
• University of California – Berkeley (Haas)