On the edge of the vast expanses of Duke Forest, in Durham, North Carolina, lies the 12-acre campus of Duke Fuqua School of Business, one of the elite business schools in the United States of America. Founded in 1838 and named after philanthropist J. B. Fuqua, the school enrolls more than 1500 students a year into its 7-degree programs, which include a Full-Time MBA, a Global Executive MBA and a Weekend MBA.
What it may lack in immediate brand recognition, especially among international applicants, Duke Fuqua MBA Program makes up for in its obsessive focus on core values and attempts to create a tight-knit community among its alumni, faculty, students and their families. With a network of more than 22,000 alumni, Duke Fuqua has one of the largest alumni bases in the world, surpassed only by a handful of schools.
This article will help you in researching the class profile and employment reports of the Full-Time MBA Program at the Duke Fuqua School of Business. Following is a brief outline of this article:
- Trivia about the Duke Fuqua School of Business
- General information on the Fuqua School of Business
- Duke Fuqua MBA program – Class profile, cost of attendance, median salary
- Duke’s Fuqua MBA Application Deadlines 2019-2020
- Duke’s Fuqua MBA employment and salaries
- Fuqua School of Business – Notable Alumni
- Other MBA programs you should consider
Some Trivia about the Duke Fuqua School of Business
- Possibly the most often mispronounced top business school, its name is actually pronounced few-kwa
- B. Fuqua, the philanthropist after whom the school is named, wrote to several schools as an impoverished young boy asking for free study material. Duke University is the only school that responded. He gave a $40 million donation to the school later in his life as a gift for believing in him.
- Fuqua Faculty has been consistently ranked #1 for intellectual capital by Bloomberg Businessweek
- Durham has been ranked the #1 city for millennials by Forbes magazine
General Information on the Duke Fuqua School of Business
Location: 100 Fuqua Drive, Durham, NC 27708, USA
Dean: Bill Boulding
Admissions Office: Phone: +1 919-660-7705
Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 am – 5 pm Eastern Time
Email: admissions-info@fuqua.duke.edu
Social Media: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube
Duke Fuqua MBA Program – Class profile, Cost of Attendance, Median Salary
Fuqua sees itself as a General Management program, one which is not specialized in any industry and has a curriculum to match. The highly customizable curriculum has only 13 mandated core classes and provides the flexibility to choose from more than 100 electives so the program becomes highly personalized. The Full-Time MBA program also offers students exciting opportunities to develop their abilities beyond the classroom through a wide array of experiential learning opportunities. Whether you desire to be a consultant or an entrepreneur, Fuqua’s immersive learning initiatives will enable you to apply classroom learning to real-world experiences.
Mentioned below are the basic statistics for Fuqua’s Full-Time MBA Program. Since the MBA Admission process is so competitive, it may benefit potential applicants to have statistics in the 80% range of the school they wish to apply to.
| Sr. No. | Fuqua School of Business | Stats |
| 1 | Median GMAT | 710 |
| 2 | Average GPA | 3.5 |
| 3 | Class Size | 395 |
| 4 | GMAT Range | 660 – 740 |
| 5 | Work Experience (Average) | 5.5 years |
| 6 | Tuition Cost (per year) | USD 70,000 |
| 7 | Average Age | 28 |
| 8 | % Employed after graduation | 96% |
| 9 | Median Base Salary | USD 137,725 |
| 10 | Median Signing Bonus | USD 30,000 |
Duke Fuqua MBA: Incoming Class Profile
Fuqua’s current class is a truly diverse selection of incredibly talented individuals. The school also represents minorities (37%) and under-represented minorities (17%) generously.
| Applications received | 3036 |
| Enrolled | 695 |
| GMAT Scores (middle 80%) | 660 – 740 |
| Undergraduate GPA (middle 80%) | 3.1 – 3.87 |
| % of women in the class | 43% |
| % of international citizens | 37% |
Pre-MBA Industries of Duke Fuqua MBA Incoming Class of 2019
Presented below is the pre-MBA backgrounds of the students in the current class of Fuqua School of Business. While Consulting and Financial Services backgrounds are heavily favored, one may notice the eclectic selection of students from a broad range of careers. This shows that there’s truly no one right path to Fuqua.
| Industry | Pre-MBA work experience |
| Consulting | 18% |
| Financial Services | 17% |
| Healthcare | 9% |
| Information Technology | 4% |
| Energy / Chemical / Gas | 5% |
| Marketing / PR / Advertising | 7% |
| Non-profit | 6% |
| Sales / Business Development | 4% |
| Government | 5% |
| Other | 27% |
2019 – 2020 Duke Fuqua MBA Application Deadlines
Fuqua experimented with an early action round this year. The deadlines for each round and the decision dates are mentioned below.
| Round | Application Deadline | Interview Decision Sent | Final Decision Release |
| Early Action | Sep. 19, 2019 | Oct. 2, 2019 | Oct. 28, 2019 |
| Round 1 | Oct. 14, 2019 | Nov. 1, 2019 | Dec. 18, 2019 |
| Round 2 | Jan. 6, 2020 | Jan. 31, 2020 | Mar. 19, 2020 |
| Round 3 | Mar. 11, 2019 | Mar. 25, 2020 | Apr. 20, 2020 |
Duke Fuqua MBA Program: Employment and Salaries
As is standard for most elite business schools, the graduating class of Fuqua reported a median annual salary of $137, 725 with an average $30,000 sign-on bonus. An impressive 95% of the graduating class was employed within 3 months of graduation.
Duke Fuqua MBA: Employment by Job Function
| By Job Function | Graduates | Annual salary | ||||
| Number | Percent | Mean | Median | High | Low | |
| Consulting | 121 | 34% | $149,970 | $150,000 | $180,000 | $85,000 |
| Finance | 81 | 23% | $135,999 | $150,000 | $325,000 | $70,000 |
| Corporate Finance | 27 | 8% | $114,210 | $118,000 | 135,000 | $70,000 |
| Investment Banking | 39 | 11% | $149,605 | $150,000 | $160,000 | $125,000 |
| Private Equity Analyst/Venture Capitalist | 4 | 1% | $166,250 | $120,000 | $325,000 | $100,000 |
| General Management | 74 | 21% | $123,273 | $125,000 | $170,000 | $50,000 |
| Business Development | 10 | 3% | $116,300 | $117,500 | $156,000 | $70,000 |
| General/ General Management | 10 | 3% | $110,000 | $120,000 | $140,000 | $50,000 |
| Internal Consulting/Corporate Strategy | 13 | 4% | $131,909 | $125,000 | $170,000 | $90,000 |
| Other General Management | 14 | 4% | $129,321 | $133,500 | $155,000 | $100,000 |
| Rotational/Leadership Dev. Program | 22 | 6% | $124,990 | $125,000 | $140,000 | $110,000 |
| Marketing | 51 | 14% | $120,772 | $123,500 | $155,000 | $45,000 |
| Brand Management | 11 | 3% | $112,000 | $110,000 | $135,450 | $105,000 |
| General Marketing | 7 | 2% | $110,000 | $115,000 | $150,000 | $45,000 |
| Product Management | 22 | 6% | $128,017 | $131,000 | $155,000 | $100,00 |
| Sales | 5 | 1% | $123,600 | $118,000 | $145,000 | $104,000 |
| Operations/Supply Chain | 7 | 2% | $124,500 | $127,500 | $140,000 | $92,000 |
| Other | 12 | 3% | $124,273 | $130,000 | $140,000 | $102,000 |
Duke Fuqua MBA: Employment by Industry
| By Industry | Graduates | Annual salary | ||||
| Number | Percent | Mean | Median | High | Low | |
| Consulting | 112 | 32% | $150,986 | $150,500 | $180,000 | $85,000 |
| Healthcare | 6 | 2% | $140,000 | $145,000 | $150,000 | $85,000 |
| Human Capital | 4 | 1% | $140,000 | $140,000 | $140,000 | $140,000 |
| Strategy | 31 | 9% | $149,452 | $150,000 | $170,000 | $100,000 |
| Other Consulting | 68 | 19% | $153,362 | $165,000 | $180,000 | $85,000 |
| Consumer Goods | 17 | 5% | $116,585 | $115,000 | $135,450 | $105,000 |
| Beverages/Food | 4 | 1% | $122,500 | $120,000 | $135,000 | $115,000 |
| Other Consumer Goods | 12 | 3% | $115,163 | $111,750 | $135,450 | $105,000 |
| Finance | 69 | 20% | $143,235 | $150,000 | $325,000 | $90,000 |
| Financial Services | 59 | 17% | $141,345 | $150,000 | $160,000 | $90,000 |
| Other Finance | 5 | 1% | $134,000 | $150,000 | $150,000 | $100,000 |
| Health | 29 | 8% | $116,620 | $118,008 | $130,000 | $97,500 |
| Medical Devices | 6 | 2% | $117,083 | $120,000 | $124,000 | $100,000 |
| Pharma | 9 | 3% | $114,439 | $115,000 | $130,000 | $97,500 |
| Providers & Services | 8 | 2% | $120,938 | $125,000 | $130,000 | $102,500 |
| Sports | 4 | 1% | $97,500 | $105,000 | $135,000 | $90,000 |
| Manufacturing | 10 | 3% | $127,564 | $125,416 | $150,000 | $100,000 |
| Other Manufacturing | 8 | 2% | $132,604 | $132,916 | $150,000 | $120,000 |
| Retail | 11 | 3% | $115,909 | $115,000 | $135,000 | $90,000 |
| Technology | 80 | 23% | $127,389 | $130,250 | $170,000 | $45,000 |
| Equipment/Hardware/Networking | 16 | 5% | $132,833 | $131,500 | $140,000 | $120,000 |
| Internet Services/E-Commerce | 38 | 11% | $122,396 | $130,000 | $155,000 | $45,000 |
| Software & Applications | 17 | 5% | $130,264 | $130,000 | $170,000 | $95,000 |
| Other Technology | 8 | 2% | $127,429 | $130,000 | $140,000 | $105,000 |
Duke Fuqua School of Business: Employment by Region
| By World Region | Graduates | Annual salary | ||||
| Number | Percent | Mean | Median | High | Low | |
| Asia | 18 | 5% | $110,037 | $110,000 | $156,000 | $78,261 |
| Latin America/Caribbean | 9 | 3% | $90,125 | $93,000 | $120,000 | $45,000 |
| North America | 321 | 91% | $138,041 | $140,000 | $325,000 | $50,000 |
Major Employers hiring from Duke Fuqua MBA
Some of the largest companies in the world hire directly from Fuqua’s campus. Other Fortune 100 companies are known to hire Fuqua graduates off-campus as well.
- Amazon
- Dell
- BCG
- Microsoft
- McKinsey
- Bain & Company
- Barclays
- Citi
- Deloitte
- Goldman Sachs
- Google, Inc.
- P. Morgan
- Kraft Heinz Company
- Nike
- PepsiCo
- Under Armour
- Walmart
Duke Fuqua School of Business – Notable Alumni
Following are some notable alumni of the Duke Fuqua School of Business:
- Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Inc.
- Melinda Gates, co-founder of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Bruce Johnson, former CEO of Sears Holdings Corporation
- Malvinder Mohan Singh, former CEO of Ranbaxy Labs
- Johnathan Browning, former CEO of Volkswagen Group
- Ranjana Clark, CTO MUFG America
- Jack O. Bovender Jr., CEO of Hospital Corporation of America
- Christian Van Thillo, CEO De Persgroep
- Michael Lamach, Ingersoll Rand
- John Kogan, CEO Illumeo
Other programs you may consider
Other schools that are a close match to Fuqua with regards to the competitiveness of the selection process, rankings, employability of graduates and brand image are:
Stretch Schools: MIT Sloan, Columbia, Northwestern Kellogg
Match Schools: Michigan Ross, NYU Stern, UVA Darden
Safety Schools: UNC Kenan-Flagler, UT Austin (McCombs), UCLA Anderson
