Starting Salaries By Industry At Top Schools

If you want to be a consultant, which schools pretty much insure that you’ll get the highest standard pay package? And if you want to go into finance, which schools will deliver the biggest starting salaries?

Depending on where your MBA diploma is stamped, it can make a difference. In general, the more highly selective a business school is, the higher the rates of starting pay.

But that’s not always the case. In fact, one of the big surprises is how far down the rankings schools deliver the exact same pay packages for MBA graduates. And another surprise is how some schools that you would expect to guarantee the highest base pay in certain fields just don’t.

DO CONSULTING FIRMS PAY MORE FOR HARVARD GRADS? NOT ANYMORE THAN THEY DO FOR EMORY MBAS

Whether you have the degree from Harvard Business School or Emory University’s Guizueta Business School makes little difference in the median starting pay for consultants, for example. That can be true in several other industries as well. Consider high tech. The MBAs who graduate from Vanderbilt University’s Owen School matched the starting base salaries of those from Wharton last year.

WHOSE MBAS MAKE THE MOST MONEY IN FINANCE? HINT: IT’S NOT WHARTON OR COLUMBIA

And in finance, it’s not Wharton or Columbia-historically the finance schools–that get MBA grads the highest starting salaries. In fact, it’s Harvard and Stanford, schools known for their general management approach.

HIGHEST SALARIES IN CONSUMER PRODUCTS? IT’S NOT KELLOGG

Which school’s graduates had the highest median salaries in consumer products? You might have guess Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. After all, the school is renown as a marketing powerhouse. But last year at least it was the MBAs from Yale University’s School of Management who took home the highest median salaries in the industry: $115,000 vs. Kellogg’s $103,000.

Check the table out below for all the details: