‘Business School Is A Waste…If You Want To Blow $100K, Go To Vegas’

Five years out, the recession-wrecked Class of 2008 reveals what they make amidst the usual doubts about the MBA’s value

Many In The Class of 2008 Made Less Than The Class of 2006

 

School                              Class of 2008 Median Salary   Class of 2006 Median Salary   Change
Stanford GSB $221,000 $205,000 +$16,000
London Business School $214,000 $197,000 +$17,000
IMD $211,000 $247,000 -$36,000
Harvard Business School $205,000 $230,000 -$25,000
UPenn (Wharton) $205,000 $225,000 -$20,000
Chicago (Booth) $200,000 $205,000 -$5,000
Columbia $192,000 $198,000 -$6,000
Dartmouth (Tuck) $189,000 $200,000 -$19,000
MIT (Sloan) $185,000 $200,000 -$15,000
Northwestern (Kellogg) $176,000 $183,000 -$7,000
UC-Berkeley (Haas) $175,000 $171,000 +$4,000
INSEAD $175,000 $193,000 -$21,000
UCLA (Anderson) $165,000 $159,000 +$6,000
New York (Stern) $165,000 $160,000 +$5,000
SDA Bocconi $165,000 $152,000 +$13,000
Australian GSM $163,000 $181,000 -$18,000
Virginia (Darden) $158,000 $178,000 -$20,000
Cornell (Johnson) $155,000 $180,000 -$25,000
Michigan (Ross) $153,000 $146,000 +$7,000
Duke (Fuqua) $152,000 $162,000 -$10,000
Georgetown (McDonough) $150,000 $138,000 +$12,000
Texas-Austin (McCombs) $150,000 $144,000 +$6,000
Cambridge (Judge) $146,000 $155,000 -$9,000
IESE $146,000 $161,000 -$15,000
Yale SOM $144,000 $150,000 -$6,000
IE Business School $144,000 $141,000 +$3,000
UNC (Kenan-Flagler) $141,000 $135,000 +$6,000
Manchester $141,000 $155,000 -$14,000
Emory (Goizueta) $140,000 $128,000 +$12,000
HEC Paris $140,000 $161,000 -$21,000
Vanderbilt (Owen) $138,000 $140,000 -$2,000
Carnegie (Tepper) $135,000 $147,000 -$12,000
Oxford (Said) $135,000 $156,000 -$21,000
USC (Marshall) $135,000 $144,000 -$9,000

Source: Forbes’ surveys of business school alumni for its 2013 & 2011 MBA rankings

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.