Only One International Business School Makes Businessweek’s Top 20 Global MBA Ranking

IMD is nestled near the mountains of Switzerland but also has a campus in Singapore

ACCORDING TO BW. MBAS FROM IMD HAD HIGHER STARTING SALARIES IN FINANCE THAN WHARTON MBAS

The 75% component in pay consists of median salary after graduation (weighted 30%), median alumni current salary (22.5%), percentage of students seeking employment who were employed within three months of graduation (11.25%); percentage of students reporting salary information who received a bonus (5.625%), and median sign-on bonus (5.625%).

IMD’s placement on the ranking was almost certainly helped by the heavy weighting put on compensation. At IMD, where MBAs tend to be a bit older and more experienced, graduates typically pull down higher starting salaries. In finance, for example, IMD grads had among the highest median starting salaries for any MBAs, including Wharton.

According to Businessweek, MBAs who went into finance from IMD last year had median starting salaries of $132,000, $2K more than Wharton and significantly higher than London Business School where the equivalent salary was $106,000. Only Harvard and Stanford, where the median for finance was $150,000 in 2017, did better than IMD.

While the international MBA programs overall did less well on BW’s pay metrics, some of the programs outdid U.S. schools on some other measures. Businessweek said that non-U.S. schools ranked particularly high in its entrepreneurship index. “ESADE, in Madrid, ranked No. 6 internationally in entrepreneurship, ahead of Harvard, University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School,” according to the magazine. INSEAD placed ninth in entrepreneurship, while IESE Business School was right behind it at tenth.

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