Job Placement Rates

One of the ultimate outcomes for an institution like RMU, whose curriculum is centered upon applied knowledge, is the willingness of employers to hire its graduates.  Therefore the University expends considerable effort to gather placement statistics for both undergraduate and graduate students.

The main means for doing this is a placement profile survey that is conducted one year after a graduating class leaves RMU.  The one year lag gives new graduates time to secure employment and settle into their careers after their time at RMU.  RMU expends considerable effort to obtain this important data and has been very successful at getting a good picture of how its graduates fare in the job market.  Although data is collected on both undergraduate and graduate alumni, the most useful data pertains to undergraduates as the vast majority of RMU graduate students are working adults who are employed during and after their studies at the University.

Survey Results

Given the importance of this outcomes evidence, RMU has worked hard to improve both the response rate on the survey and the quality of the data collected. Both of these initiatives have been successful as detailed in the results for the class of 2015 provided below. The placement survey results for the five most recently surveyed classes graduating with bachelor’s degrees are:

  • 2012 - 726 surveys sent.  Of these alumni, 414 or 57% responded to the survey.  Of the respondents, 86% were employed, 7% were enrolled in graduate school, and 7% were still seeking permanent employment.
  • 2013 - 699 surveys sent.  Of these alumni, 542 or 78% responded to the survey.  Of the respondents, 85% were employed, 7% were enrolled in graduate school, and 8% were still seeking permanent employment.  Of the 85% of the respondents who were employed, 88% reported that they are employed in positions corresponding with their career goal or academic major.
  • 2014 - 820 surveys sent.  Of these alumni, 643 or 78% responded to the survey.  Of the respondents, 88% were employed, 4% were enrolled in graduate school, and 8% were still seeking permanent employment.  Of the 85% of the respondents who were employed, 87% reported that they are employed in positions corresponding with their career goal or academic major.
  • 2015 - 871 Surveys sent. Of these alumni, 825 or 95% responded to the survey. Of the respondents, 75% were employed, 9% were enrolled in graduate school, and 16% were still seeking permanent employment. Of the 75% of the respondents who were employed, 74% reported that they are employed in positions corresponding with their career goals or academic major.
  • 2016 - 960 Surveys sent. Of these alumni, 743 or 77% responded to the survey. Of the respondents, 88% were employed, 6% were enrolled in graduate school, and 6% were still seeking permanent employment.

As part of the survey RMU also collects data on the graduates’ place of residence, salaries, industry of employer, and primary occupational field of employment. Top employers of the class of 2016 include Allegheny Health Network, Bayer Corporation, BNY Mellon, Deloitte US, Ernst & Young, Federated Investors, FedEx Ground, Highmark, Inc., KPMG, People's Natural Gas, PNC Financial Services Group and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP.