It’s very important for all aspiring MBAs to make sure that their work to get admitted, their studies and hardships won’t be in vain eventually. They have to overcome a lot of obstacles to get paid more and improve their careers.
Hence, it’s crucial to know how to obtain the biggest possible return on investment when entering a business schools. So Poets & Quants used the latest U.S. News data to answer the prospective MBAs’ questions.
Of course, if you manage to get admitted into one of the top-10 schools, your salary will increase dramatically post-graduation. In the recent five years of rankings, the layout for the most formidable competitors hasn’t altered. The best salaries are reported by Stanford Graduate School of Business’s alumni ($173,989). The second place is held by Harvard Business School ($167,148), then University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School ($166,930), Columbia Business School ($163,577), followed by Chicago Booth ($159,911). On average, graduates of the top-10 schools get a handsome sum of $161,165.
However, not all alumni of a given school report their salary data. For instance, only 203 Stanford graduates gave their salary numbers, whereas at Harvard, the number was 607, and at Chicago Booth – 309.
The average alumni salary is increasing all the time
Back in 2013, Stanford couldn’t boast the best salaries. It was Wharton School that had the first place, with $141,243 average graduate salary. In the recent five years, Wharton’s average salary grew by 18.2%, while Stanford’s increased by 26.5%. The lowest increase in the top-10 was shown by Dartmouth Tuck ($158,194; by 13.8%).
Still, the highest pay increase in the last five years wasn’t reported by Harvard, Stanford or Wharton, but the University of Florida (Hough Graduate School of Business). Here, alumni salaries rose by a whopping 38% and now constitute $116.281.
How much students pay for a chance at handsome salaries
Of course, even the largest alumni salaries out there are influenced by how much the student had to pay to get there – that’s basically what ROI means. The largest tuition fee for a two-year full-time MBA education was reported by Harvard Business School. Their alumni paid $144.000, which was 22.3% more than in 2014 (interestingly, back then the largest tuition fee was reported by another school – Wharton, with $136,420 price tag for a full-time MBA).
Still, in the recent years Wharton showed one of the smallest rises in tuition fee – only 2.9%. The most meager rise was reported by UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School (by 1.1%, to $116,276). The largest increase in tuition was at Emory Goizueta Business School (by 22.7%, to $118,000).
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