Bren:Alumni

The Best Places to Launch a Career
Our ranking is based on three extensive surveys: of career services directors at U.S. colleges, the employers they identify as the best for new graduates, and college students themselves. This year we were able to examine the records of many more companies, which allowed us to expand our list of employers from 55 to 95 and broaden our view of the corporate landscape. Several newcomers, including PwC, IBM (IBM), and Microsoft, (MSFT) eclipsed last year’s favorites. Walt Disney (DIS) had been No. 1; this year it fell to No. 7. Last year’s No. 2, Lockheed Martin (LMT), slipped to No. 9.

There were a number of surprises beyond the rise of the accounting firms. Only nine companies in the top 50 last year offered starting salaries of at least $55,000. This year twice that many pay big money; among them are the brand-name tech companies, where, thanks to the Google effect, first-year salaries now average $60,000 to $65,000 (and that’s before bonuses). We also saw the three pharmaceutical companies surveyed last year fall in the rankings. Merck & Co. (MRK) (No. 49), which was in the news because of its problems with Vioxx, did poorly in the student poll.