MBA Salaries and Investment Analysis

Rank	Business School	Pre MBA Salaries*	Median Total Pay Package	Percent Increase
1	U. of Pennsylvania (Wharton)	$60,000	$156,000	160%
2	Northwestern (Kellogg)	$56,000	$142,000	154%
3	Stanford	$65,000	$165,500	155%
4	Harvard	$65,000	$160,000	146%
5	Columbia	$50,000	$142,500	185%
6	Duke (Fuqua)	$49,000	$128,500	162%
7	MIT (Sloan)	$55,000	$149,000	171%
8	Chicago	$55,000	$140,000	155%
9	Cornell (Johnson)	$50,000	$135,000	170%
10	Dartmouth (Tuck)	$50,000	$149,500	199%
11	Michigan	$50,000	$131,000	162%
12	NYU (Stern)	$45,000	$140,000	211%
13	UC -- Berkeley (Haas)	$50,000	$135,000	170%
14	Virginia (Darden)	$50,000	$135,000	170%
15	Yale	$45,000	$130,000	189%
16	UCLA (Anderson)	$55,000	$136,500	148%
17	Carnegie Mellon	$45,000	$125,000	178%
18	UNC -- Chapel Hill	$48,000	$125,000	160%
19	Texas -- Austin (McCombs)	$45,000	$107,000	138%
20	Indiana (Kelley)	$42,000	$114,000	171%
21	USC (Marshall)	$45,000	$112,000	149%
22	Purdue (Krannert)	$35,000	$101,500	190%
23	Rochester (Simon)	$40,000	$110,000	175%
24	Georgetown (McDonough)	$45,000	$116,000	158%
25	Washington U. (Olin)	$42,000	$109,000	160%

As this table shows, the average salary increase ranges from 138% at UT Austin to 211% at NYU (Stern).

The key takeaway from this table is that there is some cap on the amount recruiters are willing to pay first-year MBAs without regard to their pre-MBA work experience -- which we explicitly assume is closely tied to the pre MBA salaries.

Before you take this table too seriously, we want to clearly state that these numbers are simply averages. If you decide upon graduation that you would like to work for a small start up and a nice options package (we concede those days are probably gone until the business cycle comes full circle again) or if you decide to work for a large Fortune 500 with good job benefits and security, then you are NOT going to make the these 6 figure salaries your first year out of business school.

* Pre MBA salaries are estimates we developed from many sources. Certain business schools do not collect this information from their incoming students. Those schools that do report these salaries use self-reported information anyway.