What MBA Grads Made In 2014 & Why This Year Could Be The Best Ever

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The positive change in the market for MBAs is not merely a function of a vastly improved economy. It also reflects significant investment by schools in career development and corporate recruiting. Business schools–more than any other professional schools in higher education–have never been better at placing their students into the job market.

Since the Great Recession, most schools have embedded career planning and coaching into their MBA programs and play more of an early role in shaping their students for employers. At many schools, career counselors are paired with students even before they show up on campus. A portfolio of one-on-one coaching, mentorship, along with sessions on resume prep, interviewing skills, networking alumni, and determining best fit for a job and an industry are now commonplace. Employers are responding to the product, noticing how impressive the talent coming out of business schools has become and also how extraordinarily well they are trained to hit the ground running–more so than at any other time.

Median Pay & Job Offers For The Class of 2014

 

School Median Base Sign-on Bonus Other Bonus Jackpot Graduation Offers Offers 3 Months Later
Harvard $125,000 $25,000 $34,700 $184,700 88.0% 93.0%
Stanford $125,000 $25,000 $31,500 $181,500 80.O% 94.O%
Wharton $125,000 $25,000 $27,000 $177,000 88.0% 98.0%
MIT Sloan $124,400 $25,000 $20,000 $169,400 85.9% 94.6%
Kellogg $120,000 $25,000 —–** $145,000 85.0% 94.0%
Chicago $120,000 $25,000 $26,000 $171,000 89.8% 98.0%
UC-Berkeley $120,000 $26,865* $31,107* $177,972 79.0% 92.0%
Columbia $119,400 $25,000 $22,390 $166,790 83.0% 97.O%
Dartmouth (Tuck) $116,000 $25,000 $25,000 $166,000 91.O% 98.O%
Michigan (Ross) $115,000 $25,000 $16,750 $156,750 89.O% 93.O%
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) $113,250 $25,000 $10,000 $148,250 79.0% 90.O%
Duke (Fuqua) $111,000 $25,000 $15,000 $151,000 87.O% 94.O%
Yale $110,000 NA $35,000 $145,000 80.O% 93.O%
New York (Stern) $110,000 $30,000 $20,000 $160,000 81.O% 94.O%
UCLA (Anderson) $110,000 $25,000 $15,000 $150,000 75.O% 90.O%
Virginia (Darden) $110,000 $25,000 $9,500 $144,500 89.O% 94.O%
Cornell (Johnson) $106,000 $25,000 $12,500 $143,500 87.O% 92.O%
UNC (Kenan-Flagler) $100,000 $25,000 $16,625 $141,625 81.O% 92.O%
Texas-Austin (McCombs) $105,000 $25,000 $12,600 $142,600 80.O% 94.O%
Indiana (Kelley) $104,000 $20,000 $11,000 $135,000 84.O% 93.O%
Emory (Goizueta) $100,000 $25,000 $12,500 $137,000 90.4% 98.0%
Vanderbilt (Owen) $100,000 $15,000 $12,000 $127,000 83.O% 94.O%
Washington (Olin) $100,000 $15,000 NA $115,000 86.O% 97.O%

Source: Business school employment reports & P&Q reporting

Notes: Jackpot refers to graduates receiving the median of all three forms of compensation: salary, signing bonus, and other year-end guaranteed bonus. Not all graduates are given all three. At Stanford, for example, sign-on bonuses this year were collected by half the class, while 38% of the MBAs received other year-end guaranteed compensation. An asterisk indicates average numbers rather than medians. An asterisk indicates a mean, rather than median, number. ** Kellogg is the only school that did not report other year-end guaranteed income.

Differences in pay often reflect industry choices and geography. Stanford’s higher median base can largely be attributed to the fact that 12% of this year’s class went into private equity, which currently pays the most lucrative comp packages to MBAs. The median PE starting base salary this year was $170,000. At Tuck, for example, only 4% of this year’s class went into private equity and the base for those PE jobs was just $120,000.

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