Tuck Reports All-Time Best Career Stats

Tuck School of Business

Tuck School of Business

Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business today (Nov. 16) reported that the median base salary for its graduating class of MBAs this year increased 8% to a $125,000 while 99% of the Class of 2015 had job offers three months after graduation.

Both numbers are new records at the school which is consistently among the top business schools in pay and employment stats. The new base median, up from $116,000, was propelled higher by increases in salaries for MBAs in a broad range of industries, including consulting, investment banking and management, private equity, technology, and healthcare.

The $125K base is equal to the salaries thus far reported by UPenn’s Wharton and Chicago Booth but $5,000 short of Harvard Business School’s $130,000. However, Tuck also is reporting that 84% of its graduates–considerably higher a percentage than HBS, Wharton or Booth–received median-sign on bonuses of $25,000. At those three peer schools, the percentage of students getting signing bonuses this year ranged from 62% to 65%.

TUCK SCHOOL’S MEDIAN FIRST-YEAR COMPENSATION: $146,020

The median first-year compensation package (base plus sign-on bonus) for a Tuck MBA reached $146,020 this year, up from $137,718 in 2014. The number would have been higher if the school reported data for “other guaranteed compensation” as several of its peer schools do. But for the first time, Tuck decided not to report this number. Jonathan Masland, director of Tuck’s counseling and recruiting in career development, said he doesn’t think the number “means a lot. I am on the standards committee (of the MBA Career Services and Employer Alliance) and I really don’t know what that number represents.”

Last year, the school said that 38% of its graduates reported other guaranteed comp with a median of $25,000. The highest reported base salary this year, $170,000, went to an MBA who accepted a job in consulting. The lowest reported base this year was $63,466, also in consulting.

Tuck said that 92% of the graduating class had job offers at commencement, while a record 99% held offers three months later, up a percentage point from last year’s 98% number. Roughly 83% of the class reported accepting their offers by graduation, while 95% had accepted jobs three months after commencement. The higher offer and acceptance rates occurred in yet another strong year for MBA employment. Masland said there was a similar number of students came back from their summer internships last year with offers in hand. “For us, it is just a lot of personal attention, with alumni coming through to support the students,” he added.

U.S. candidates did slightly better than international MBAs with both offers and acceptances at Tuck. Some 93% of U.S. citizens had offers at graduation, versus 90% for internationals, while 100% of the graduates from the U.S. had offers three months later, compared to 96% of international grads. “International students have one shot to be in the U.S. and there are people completely focused on challenging job searches in the U.S.,” said Masland. “One guy ended up four days after the (reporting) deadline going to Nomura to do sell-side research.”