How Much Could MBA Graduates Hope To Earn?

How much can MBA graduates hope to earn is a question that pops up as according to the latest employment reports of top business schools with someone from Harvard Business School securing a base salary of half a million dollars and another person at Stanford Graduate School of Business bagged a salary of $450,000.

However, these two instances may be an exception to the rule as according to the U.S. News & World Report Business school rankings 2019, the highest salary is drawn by a domestic student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and that of a foreign student in the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth was pegged at $325,000. Both were also employed in financial services.

A domestic graduate at Stanford got $450,000, while another at Harvard received $350,000. At UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, one foreign student managed to get $156,000 that was higher than the highest foreign national’s reported base salary from that school ($151,000).

Apart from such high salaries, what can a freshly-minted MBA expect? Well, quite a bounty by way of signing bonuses. Graduates from Wharton and Columbia Business School (CBS) received $150,000 signing bonuses. In fact, a foreign national managed to get a $165,000 bonus. In the third position was a student from the University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business drawing $122,000.

The figures were more impressive in other compensation. A domestic graduate at Stanford got $450,000, while another at Harvard received $350,000. At UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, one foreign student managed to get $156,000 that was higher than the highest foreign national’s reported base salary from that school ($151,000).

Money Begets Money in Northeast, West Coast

The report also reveals that highest salaries are earned by those who with years of work experience in sectors that offer high pay scales including Finance, especially, hedge funds, private equity companies and venture capital firms. Those looking for high salaries need to move to Northeast, where financial hubs like New York offer ample opportunities. West Coast with the Silicon Valley tech and startup companies also offer high salaries in tech, finance and consulting sectors.

The analysis also shows that US students earn more than their foreign counterparts. The difference is $325,000 to $238,600 at Wharton, $300,000 to $250,000 at Harvard and $285,000 to $250,000 at Stanford.

Notable exceptions to the rule are Tuck where the foreign graduate’s salary is $325,000 compared to top US graduate salary of $199,400 and Berkeley Haas with the foreign graduate’s salary at $300,000 compared to US graduate salary of $185,000. Foreign graduates of Georgetown University McDonough School of Business received $170,000 compared to $150,000 for their US counterparts.

As far as bonuses are concerned, not everyone gets fancy sums. While the top bonus at Wharton for the Class of 2017 was $150,000, the average was just $31,214 with 77.2% reported receiving some kind of bonus. At Harvard, where the top bonus was $100,000, the average was $29,855, and 69.5% of grads reported getting one.

In CBS, it was $34,481 with more than 68% of the graduates getting a bonus. The highest percentage getting a bonus was 82.2% at Dartmouth Tuck (175 students) and the lowest 50.7% at Stanford GSB (103 students). However, Stanford GSB graduates received the highest average base pay of $144,455 among the top 25 schools and tied with Wharton for the highest overall starting pay (salary plus bonus) at $159,815.

But not everyone is getting huge salaries. Several of those who work in non-profits get low pay to the tune of $ 18,654 in the case of a Yale graduate in a consulting role for an overseas non-profit. A Stanford graduate on a general management job on the west coast is getting a salary of $30,000 while one from Berkeley Haas $36,000 in operations at a consumer products firm.