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For more than 50 years, ÿÈÕ´ó¹Ï has been helping adult learners achieve their dreams of higher education. Our students are often balancing careers, families, and evolving goals, so we’ve built our institution on a foundation of flexibility and innovation, focusing on helping students translate real-world experience and prior credit into meaningful degrees. Today, that mission continues, and graduates can enter a rapidly changing workforce equipped with the skills and confidence to succeed.

How Do Excelsior Alumni Stack Up?

Graduates entering the workforce face numerous challenges, from rapid technological change, particularly around artificial intelligence, to economic uncertainty. As the labor market tightens, employers are placing an emphasis on job-ready skills. A recent highlights an alarming gap in graduation outcomes: Although many graduates secure employment, institutions often fall short in clearly aligning education with workforce needs.

According to the report, the percentage of graduates nationwide with a full- or part-time job related to their field decreased from 41% and 15%, respectively, in 2024 to 30% and 11% in 2025. What’s more, graduates were concerned about how prepared they were to enter the workforce. About 48% of recent graduates felt unprepared for entry-level roles, with 56% of that number citing job-specific skills as the most glaring deficit in their education.

Excelsior alumni tell a different story. A 2025 alumni exit survey reveals that the combined percentage of respondents working in a field related to their degree was almost 50% higher than the combined full- and part-time employment numbers reported by Cengage. And when asked whether they met the requirements of their current position, 75% of Excelsior respondents reported in the affirmative—again, about a 50% improvement over Cengage’s nationwide number—and 70% of University alumni felt prepared to transition into a new role. This confidence suggests a strong alignment between academic experience and real-world expectations.

That alignment was also reflected in postgraduation satisfaction among respondents. While just 35% of 2025 graduates in the Cengage report said they would have chosen the same educational path again, according to a 2025 survey conducted of alumni one year after graduation, 72% of Excelsior respondents said they would have selected the same degree program if given the chance. The contrast illustrates Excelsior’s commitment to delivering education that matters in the real world.

Excelsior Alumni in Their Fields

Beyond perception, Excelsior alumni outcomes point to tangible success across industries. From strong job placement rates to measurable salary growth, the University’s data reflects a focus on helping students achieve meaningful career progress.

Career Readiness and Employment

Aside from a 50% improvement on Cengage’s percentage of recent graduates employed in a field related to their degree, Excelsior Graduates of our School of Technology earn placement in the public and private sectors, ranging from the U.S. Navy and Army to power companies like Constellation Energy and Dominion Energy to major businesses like General Dynamics, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Lockheed Martin. Our School of Business alumni also enjoy wide placement, with many working in government, from the armed services to the Department of Homeland Security, as well as in Fortune 500 businesses like CACI International, Prudential Financial, and Lockheed Martin.

And Excelsior graduates don’t just find placement; they excel. For instance, compared to peer institutions, the profiles of Excelsior MBA alumni (2015–2025) are more likely to list skills in leadership, by a 21% margin; operations, by a 50% margin; management, by a 17% margin; project management, by a 20% margin; program management, by a 95% margin; and operational planning, by a 497% margin.*

Estimated Salaries

Salary outcomes for Excelsior graduates also suggest strong returns on educational investment. Among respondents to the 2025 one-year alumni survey, 85% reported earning $55,000 or more annually, with a mean annual income of $88,000, 78% higher than $49,500, the median annual wage of all occupations reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2024.

An Excelsior degree can help learners build skills and credentials that support long-term career growth and earning potential.

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Salary and Career Advancement

Responses recorded in the 2025 one-year survey suggest that the impact of an Excelsior education is also clear in career advancement and mobility. Many respondents reported receiving promotions (21%), new jobs (23%), or pay increases (36%) after completing their degree. Excelsior helps students build careers that evolve with their ambitions.

How Can Excelsior Advance Your Career?

By designing career-focused curricula and employing faculty with real-world industry experience, ÿÈÕ´ó¹Ï ensures that students gain practical, applicable skills—not just theoretical knowledge.

This focus is critical at a time when Cengage reports that 1 in 5 graduates nationwide said that their education did little to support career readiness through services like networking, resume development, or job search preparation. Excelsior works to close that gap through dedicated resources such as Career Readiness programming, including interactive Career Café sessions that connect students with professionals in the field.

The result is a learning experience that extends beyond the classroom and into the workplace. A career-focused education leads to confidence on the job, which may be why 91% of recent Excelsior graduates said they would recommend the University to a friend or colleague.

In a world where the path from education to employment is not always clear, ÿÈÕ´ó¹Ï continues to provide one that is, helping students move forward with confidence, purpose, and the tools to succeed.

Speak to an admissions representative today to get started on your educational path at Excelsior.

*Source: Lightcast data pulled from publicly available sources. MBA alumni profiles were compared to alumni of 10 peer institutions.