Highest & Lowest Paid MBAs of 2013 by: John A. Byrne on January 23, 2014 | | 174,827 Views January 23, 2014 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit THE LOWEST REPORTED BASE SALARY OF AN MBA THIS YEAR: $10,000 AT UCLA Of course, looking at the extreme highs in pay can easily create unrealistic expectations. So it’s equally important to have a look at the other extreme: how little an MBA from a top school can make. More often than not, the lowest reported starting salaries are accepted by graduates who venture into the non-profit or social sector–or who take jobs with massive potential payouts at year-end. The year’s lowest reported salary: Just $15,000 for a University of Michigan MBA who went into “services.” Yet, at several top schools there were plenty of grads who reported accepting jobs that paid $50,000 a year or less–far below the average pre-MBA pay of their classmates. A Fuqua MBA who went the social enterprise route accepted a $24,000-a-year job. An MBA in the Class of 2013 at the University of Michigan’s Ross School reported receiving a $15,000-a-year position in “services,” also presumably in the social sector. The lowest-paid Wharton grad walked out with a $30,000 job in an unknown field. In a surprising number of cases, the lowest paid MBAs were not the non-profit types. At INSEAD, the lowest paid graduate in 2012 (the school’s commencement for its one-year MBA program is in December) was just $21,900 for a corporate planning job in media and entertainment in Asia Pacific. At Stanford, one MBA reported taking a $40,000-a-year job in consumer products and services, probably with a startup and a piece of equity. The lowest starting salary for the 5% of Stanford grads who went into the non-profit sector was $75,000, well above the lows in technology as well as media and entertainment. In fact, the high was a respectable $98,000 base. Nice work if you can get it, especially for a non-profit. Highest Reported Base Salaries By Top Business Schools In 2013 London Business School $193,877 (Base salary) Finance School Compensation Industry Northwestern (Kellogg) $375,000 (Base salary) Investment Management Pennsylvania (Wharton) $350,000 (Base salary) Unknown Columbia Business School $310,000 (Base salary) Private Equity Duke (Fuqua) $260,000 (Base salary) Energy/General Management Chicago (Booth) $250,000 (Base salary) Private Equity INSEAD $247,000 (Base salary) ** Private Equity NYU (Stern) $237,600 (Base salary) Hedge Fund Stanford Graduate School of Business $225,000 (Base salary) Private Equity Harvard Business School $222,000 (Base salary) * Private Equity IE Business School $182,800 (Base salary) General Management Dartmouth (Tuck) $180,000 (Base salary) Real Estate Georgetown (McDonough) $180,000 (Base salary) Finance Michigan (Ross) $168,000 (Base salary) Investment Banking MIT (Sloan) $165,000 (Base salary) Private Equity Emory (Goizueta) $162,000 (Base salary) Financial Services Virginia (Darden) $160,000 (Base salary) Unknown Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) $160,000 (Base salary) Consulting Indiana (Kelley) $160,000 (Base salary) Unknown UCLA (Anderson) $160,000 (Base salary) Law Source: Business school employment reports for 2013. Note: * Conservative estimate based on HBS only disclosing top 75th percentile of base. ** INSEAD data for 2012 due to December graduation date. Previous Page Continue ReadingPage 2 of 3 1 2 3 Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.