CSEA

Three documents, not one slogan. Full-time MBA programs use the Standards for Reporting Full-time MBA Employment Statistics. Full-time specialty master’s programs have a separate book. Part-time MBA and part-time specialty master’s programs use a Graduating Class Profile, because those students usually keep a job. Executive MBA is out of all three.

A Standards-compliant full-time report must publish required tables: the graduating class (Table 1.A), timing of first offers (2.A), timing of acceptances (2.B), primary source of acceptances (3.A), compensation (4.A), and compensation by function, industry, and world region. Footnotes must state the share of the class with reliable employment information and the share of job-accepting graduates with usable salary. Extra charts are allowed if they are labeled as outside the Standards.

The reporting year runs 1 July to 30 June. Schools with several graduation dates fold those cohorts into one class. A one-month shift is allowed if the school uses it every year and footnotes why.

Program	Information target	Salary target	Clock
Full-time MBA (Ed. VII)	85% of graduates	80% of those who accepted by 3 months	Graduation and 3 months
Part-time MBA / PT specialty master’s (Std. II)	70% of graduates	70% of employed graduates	4-month class profile
Full-time specialty master’s (Std. II)	70% of graduates	See SM document	6-month window, with an early-close option

CSEA was founded in 1994 after career offices told AACSB and GMAC that published “placement” numbers were marketing copy. Some schools were reporting from 10–20% of a class. The first Standards were drafted in 1996 and adopted in 1999. U.S. News still uses eligibility for CSEA’s Standards Compliance Review as a quality signal.

Example: a 240-person full-time class has reliable status on 210 graduates (87.5%) and salary on 152 of 180 acceptors (84%). Both footnotes clear the full-time floors. A part-time program with the same 70% knowledge rate would also clear, but it should not publish a “placement rate” copied from Table 2.B.

No. Compliance means the school followed the matching Standards, published every required table and footnote, and added the compliance statement. Pretty PDFs that drop Table 3.A or bury the response-rate footnote are not compliant even if they cite CSEA on the cover.

No. Schools upload aggregate data to CSEA’s Employment Data System (full-time MBA in October–December). They can opt into a Standards Compliance Review. Reviewers draw a random sample from that opt-in pool. The review is educational, not a government audit.

Working-professional classes are larger and harder to survey. The 2025 revisions cut the specialty-master’s knowledge floor from 75% to 70% for the same reason. Full-time MBA stayed at 85%. A lower floor is not permission to skip outreach.

Yes. Edition VII says schools may collect at six months if they want, but those later outcomes stay out of the Standards tables. Mixing a September 90% with a December 96% in the same required table is the error.