Geographic placement
Also called geographic region · location placement
Table 4.D (Compensation by World Region) is required: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, North America, Oceania, and World Region Not Reported. Schools must also complete the sub-region table that matches their home continent (for U.S. programs, North America: Midwest, Northeast, South, Southwest, West, plus other North American countries as the standards map them). CSEA points to UN DESA region definitions in its appendix.
Geographic placement is the CSEA count of full-time MBA graduates who accepted jobs in a world region (and, for the school’s home region, a sub-region) by three months after graduation. Location is where the work sits, not the employer’s HQ and not the student’s nationality. Remote roles use the home office — the place the graduate would go if called in.
How is it reported?
Table 4.D (Compensation by World Region) is required: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, North America, Oceania, and World Region Not Reported. Schools must also complete the sub-region table that matches their home continent (for U.S. programs, North America: Midwest, Northeast, South, Southwest, West, plus other North American countries as the standards map them). CSEA points to UN DESA region definitions in its appendix.
The population matches function placement: seekers who accepted new full-time employment by three months. Salary publishes when the cell has at least three salary points and at least one percent of seekers, whichever is greater. Function and geography tables do not split pay by work authorization.
Remote work is a location coding problem, not a separate outcome. CSEA’s Class of 2026 update: use the student’s home office, or the office they would report to. If the firm is fully virtual, use where the student actually works most of the time. Commute frequency does not change the code. A New York MBA employed by a Bay Area company who works from Brooklyn is Northeast, not West, unless the home office is California.
City-level tables are allowed as subsets. They still have to respect cell-size and confidentiality rules. A “San Francisco $180k” median on two people is not standards-compliant.
Worked example
160 accepted jobs. 148 North America (92.5%), 8 Asia, 4 Europe. North America salary n = 130, median $168,500. Asia n = 4 salaries: if one percent of seekers is 2, the three-person rule still blocks a published Asia median unless n ≥ 3 and ≥ 1%. With 4 salaries and 180 seekers (1% = 1.8), 4 clears both; with 400 seekers (1% = 4) it sits on the line. A school that relabels those eight Asia jobs as “international” without a region table is not CSEA-complete.
How does it differ from function placement?
Function is the work. Geography is the place. A consulting offer in Dallas is Consulting × South, not “consulting geography.” Work authorization is a third axis: an F-1 student in New York is North America + non-permanent, not “international placement.”
| Axis | Table | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Function | 4.B | What work? |
| Industry | 4.C | Which sector? |
| Geography | 4.D–4.J | Where? |
| Work authorization | 4.A | Right to work in the program country? |
Common errors
Coding HQ instead of work location. Putting all F-1 students in “international.” Treating remote as a region named Remote. Publishing a city median below the 3 / 1% floor. Comparing a U.S. “West” share to another school’s “California” share as if the bins matched.
FAQ
Where do hybrid roles go?
To the home office / report-to office, not to a “hybrid” region. Days in office do not matter under the 2026 clarification.
Is Mexico in North America or Latin America?
CSEA uses UN region lists in its appendix. Use that list, not informal recruiter geography.
Do we include people who took jobs after three months if they stay in-region?
No. The three-month accept cutoff is the same as for salary and function.
Can we show “international” as one bar?
As a summary graphic, maybe. A standards-compliant report still needs world-region rows. A single international bucket hides whether the residual is London or Lagos.
Related terms
Sources
- CSEA Standards for Reporting Full-Time MBA Employment Statistics, Edition VII Table 4.D world regions; UN sub-regions; 3-month cutoff; remote = home office
- CSEA Class of 2026 Standards Updates (12twenty) Remote work geography is home office or where the student would go into work; 100% virtual uses where the student works
