MBA Graduates Average Salary
Recently, Poets & Quants conducted an in-depth analysis of the salaries and bonuses of top business school graduates. However, as anyone who has completed an MBA and entered (or returned to) the labor market knows, your salary after graduation depends on many factors.
According to Poets & Quants , many business schools also track such data: “other forms” of compensation, such as guaranteed bonuses at the end of the year. Most business schools collect information about these bonuses because they increase graduate salaries and increase the numbers that the university can post on its website.
Not surprisingly, business schools that top all other rankings ended up at the top and in the “salary”, and more or less in the same order, especially if you take into account the salary with bonuses. Stanford Business School ranks first in the salary rankings, with a dizzyingly high average graduate salary of $257,054—including a non-bonus portion of $144,455.
In second place after Stanford is Columbia Business School ($221,036), followed by Harvard Business School ($220,188), Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania ($209,501), and Booth Business School at the University of Chicago ($200). $415). These are the only five schools whose graduate salaries have exceeded $200,000.
However, Stanford’s first place may be in question: the sample of salary levels with bonuses for graduates of this school is based on only 51 respondents. That’s just a quarter (25.1%) of all former Stanford students who reported their salaries. This is, of course, more than Harvard, Wharton, Booth or the Sloan School of Management based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, the illusion is created by the fact that one graduate is very lucky – his salary with bonuses is as much as $450,000. This immediately boosted the school’s average to $83,065 – more than $25,000 more than the next runner-up, Columbia Business School ($57,460). Most of the other business schools at the top of the rankings boast graduate salaries in the $150,000 to $250,000 range.
Large bonuses and other types of compensation increase the ranking of the best business schools
Last year, there was an attempt to change the rating creation model, taking into account only salary without bonuses. The current data has been called “an indicator that does not reflect the level of salaries of MBA graduates “. However, business schools “like” to include data in their reports that show them from the best side. The average figure for other types of compensation – for example, tuition reimbursement and non-guaranteed bonuses – often greatly exceeds the average bonus, especially for graduates of top business schools. The top 10 schools have an average bonus of $30,089; other types of compensation – $ 39,245, despite the fact that not all graduates receive them.
None of the top 50 business schools have salaries below $100,000.
The lower the business school in the ranking, the lower its graduates’ bonuses and indicators of other types of compensation. In the top 50 of this rating, you can see bonuses of over $25,000 for graduates of 25 schools. However, only 13 schools report other types of compensation in excess of 25,000. Nine schools did not report other types of compensation at all, although absolutely all schools reported the amount of alumni bonuses.
Thus, five business schools, the total salary of graduates of which exceeds 200 thousand dollars, broke into the first places thanks to bonuses and other types of compensation. Another 15 schools have graduates earning an average total salary of over $130,000. No school in the top 50 has salaries below $100,000. If you look at each category separately, then in 14 schools the average base salary exceeds 120 thousand, and in 13 – 100 thousand. Among the top 10 business schools, the average total compensation is $200,415 and the average base salary is $131,075.
The return on capital of a business school graduate depends on various factors
Other factors also influence the level of salaries of MBA graduates. If a sufficiently large number of alumni report bonuses, this increases the performance of the school. The highest percentage of alumni reporting bonuses is represented in the top 10 by Dartmouth College-based Tuck Business School at 82.2% (and by University of Michigan-based Ross School of Business at 81.1%). Least of all such graduates among the top 10 are represented by the Stanford Business School – only 50.7%.
Only schools at the very bottom of the rankings fall below this number – for example, Davis Business School and Eccles Business School based at the University of Utah. These universities were only able to obtain data from a small percentage of graduates. Overall, the highest number of alumni reporting bonuses are from the University of Florida-based Hough School of Business (95%) and the University of Virginia-based Darden Business School (90.4%).
Business schools are highly valued by students, allowing them to get a job immediately after graduation.
In addition, it is interesting to look at the percentage of former students who received a job offer immediately after graduation, as well as the percentage of those who looked for a job for a long time. Here, the undisputed first place belongs to the Ross Business School (University of Michigan), 89.7% of whose graduates found a job immediately after graduation. The University of Washington-based Foster Business School has the highest graduate employment rate within three months of graduation: 98.1%.
Much lower in the rankings is Stanford Business School, where 63.9% of graduates got a job immediately after graduation (probably due to the business school’s position in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Northern California), as well as the Jindal School of Management (University of Texas), where this the percentage is 41.9%. In defense of the University of Texas, we can say that after three months, the employment of its graduates is 90.3%. At just one top 50 school, the University of Maryland-based Smith School of Business, less than 80% (79.5%) of 2017 graduates found employment within three months of graduation.
Finally, the question remains how much former students had to pay for the right to receive an MBA degree. Leaving aside factors like living expenses (which are huge) and teaching materials (high, but not too high), the following summary of Poets & Quants’ tuition rankings for top business schools can be summarized as follows. The top 5 are Harvard University ($144,000), Columbia Business School ($143,088), Sloan ($142,000), Wharton ($140,400), and Booth ($138,400). In ninth place, at the very bottom of the top 10 list, is Stanford Business School, with a tuition fee of 137,736. As you remember, graduates of this school receive the highest salaries.