2026 Pamplin Graduate Programs Team
Showcasing Graduate Program Value Through Career Outcomes
At A Glance:
Capstone Sponsor: Pamplin Graduate Programs
Faculty Advisor: Koehler Slagel, Sean Raines
Capstone Team Members: Andrea Amihere, Haaris Khan, Bijan Soltani, James Sun
Solution Summary: Combined a graduate student survey with program outcomes data to produce a graduate outcomes infographic and an interactive career dashboard, giving Pamplin a fast, evidence-backed view of where its graduate students land and what they earn, drawn from 113 student survey responses and program placement data.
The Challenge
Prospective students weighing a Pamplin graduate degree want to know one thing above all: where graduates end up and what they earn. Career outcomes lived with individual program directors in spreadsheets of individual placement records, privacy constraints kept some programs from sharing at the same level of detail, and no single view tied student sentiment to placement results. When a dean or a prospective family asked how the graduate programs were performing, there was no fast, evidence-backed answer.
The Solution
The student team designed a standardized survey covering program awareness and decision factors, student satisfaction and support services, career expectations and outcomes, and curriculum value, collecting 113 responses across three graduate programs. Alongside it, the team consolidated career outcomes data supplied by program directors into a graduate outcomes infographic and a sector breakdown showing that 68% of MSBA-BA graduates enter the private sector at a $77,750 median salary, 90% of MACIS graduates do the same at $75,000, and Online MIT graduates split more evenly, earning a $114,422 median in the public sector and $99,980 in private roles.
To make hundreds of placement records usable in seconds, the team built the Pamplin Graduate Career Investigator, an interactive heat map of the United States where hovering over a state reveals total jobs, a job breakdown by program, and a median salary breakdown. Virginia leads with 355 jobs, followed by Washington, D.C. with 112, North Carolina with 77, Florida with 34, and New York and Maryland with 23 each.
The Impact
Benchmarking against peer and aspirational competitors showed where Pamplin already wins: MACIS places 90% of students before graduation, the online MIT program ranks in the top ten nationally, MSBA-BA reaches 97.5% job placement six months after graduation, and the FLEX-MBA finishes in an accelerated year and a half. The team recommended expanding marketing outreach beyond campus, leading recruitment conversations with career outcomes, and dedicating resources to professional development and to closer alignment between graduate program marketing and program directors. Together the survey, infographic, and dashboard give Pamplin leadership a student-backed picture of program value that its marketing and admissions teams can act on.
2026 Pamplin Graduate Programs Team Public Presentation