Graduate-facilitated
Also called student-facilitated · graduate facilitated · self-sourced
Edition VII lists four graduate rows:
Graduate-facilitated is CSEA Table 3.A’s label for a full-time job whose primary source was the student’s own network or search. Personal contacts, LinkedIn, company sites, and internships the student found without school channels sit here. It is the complement of school-facilitated, not a failing grade.
What sits in the graduate column?
Edition VII lists four graduate rows:
- Conversion of an internship obtained through graduate-initiated sources
- Personal contacts (previous employers, family, friends outside the school)
- Online job postings (social media, LinkedIn, Indeed, company websites)
- Other graduate-facilitated
Stanford GSB 2025: 46% graduate-facilitated, of which 34 percentage points were the non-GSB network and 6 were converting a student-sourced internship. Tepper 2025: 27% graduate-facilitated. Two-year programs with a heavy internship machine print a smaller graduate share. That is a pipeline design, not a moral ranking of students.
LinkedIn applied through a posting the career center promoted is a school row (school-promoted job boards / career systems). LinkedIn applied cold is a graduate row. The graduate’s primary-source answer, not the URL, decides. Offices that recode every LinkedIn close as school-facilitated are stuffing Table 3.A.
How to read a high graduate-facilitated share
| High graduate-facilitated often means | It does not automatically mean |
|---|---|
| Strong pre-MBA network, family business, or return to a prior employer after an interview | The career office did nothing |
| One-year calendar with little summer conversion | The school “abandoned” international students |
| Students hunting in niches the campus does not cover | Offers were lower quality |
A return to a pre-MBA employer after a competitive interview is seeking + graduate-facilitated (personal contacts / previous employer), not company-sponsored. Company-sponsored people never enter Table 3.A, because they are not-seeking.
Example: 150 acceptances. 90 school-facilitated, 55 graduate-facilitated, 5 not reported. Graduate-facilitated = 55/150 = 36.7%. If 20 of those 55 are previous-employer returns, the “cold LinkedIn” share is 35/150 = 23%. Always read the sub-rows.
Common errors
Treating graduate-facilitated as “unplaced by the school.” Recoding LinkedIn as school-facilitated. Putting company-sponsored returners in this table. Using the class as the percent base. Combining “not reported” with graduate-facilitated to inflate self-sourcing.
FAQ
Is applying on the company website always graduate-facilitated?
Usually yes, unless the posting was on the school’s system or a school-promoted board and that was the primary path. Dual paths need one primary source. Pick the one the graduate names, document it, and stay consistent.
Does a high graduate-facilitated share hurt rankings?
CSEA does not score Table 3.A. Some media stories treat a high school-facilitated percent as office quality. That reading fails for one-year programs and for schools whose students return to prior employers. Read conversion and personal-contacts sub-rows before judging.
Where does a classmate intro go?
School network / resources (classmates) — school-facilitated — if that was the primary path. A roommate’s cousin who never touched the school is personal contacts.
Can Table 3.A exceed 100%?
No. One primary source per accepted job. Multiple interviews for the same acceptance still produce one row. The parent totals (school, graduate, not reported) must equal acceptances.
Related terms
Sources
- CSEA Standards for Reporting Full-time MBA Employment Statistics, Edition VII Table 3.A graduate-facilitated: own connections, personal contacts, online postings, graduate-initiated internships
- Stanford GSB 2025 MBA Employment Report 46% graduate-facilitated; 34% non-GSB network; 6% graduate-initiated internship conversion
