Yale MBAs Joined The $200K Pay Club In 2023

Yale School of Management

Namaan Mian, chief operating officer at Management Consulted, sees what’s happening in consulting — salaries frozen at 2022 levels and widespread delays in placement after MBAs have been hired — and has a word of advice for those who hope to work in the industry some day: Don’t worry.

“I think what we’re seeing is a little bit of normalization,” Mian tells Poets&Quants. “It was roaring and now it’s just coming back to normal. And so it feels like things are slowing down, and they are. But if you look at the big picture, consulting is not in a recession. We’re just going back to what I expect to be just a normal cadence from here on out.”

That’s good news for MBAs from a school like Yale School of Management, a long-time consulting powerhouse where “normal cadence” means big paydays for consulting-bound grads. Even for Yale, it has been an especially strong couple of years for those going into the industry: In 2022, Yale sent nearly half of its new MBA graduates into consulting, where they made more than almost all of their classmates — and this year didn’t bring about any dramatic reversals. According to Yale SOM’s MBA employment report released Monday (November 27), consulting placement in 2023 only slipped by a couple of percentage points from 2022, while salaries jumped to a median $190K — higher by far than Yalies made in any other sector.

PAY & PLACEMENT FOR YALE MBAs 2015-2023

Pay & Placement	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Median Base Salary	$175,000	$160,110	$140,400	$140,000	$130,000	$127,100	$124,900	$120,000	$120,000
Median Signing Bonus	$30,000	$30,000	$30,000	$30,000	$30,000	$30,000	$33,000*	$34,000*	$34,616*
Job Offers 3 Months After Graduation	91.5%	96.1%	95.7%	90.2%	92.4%	91.9%	93.4%	93.3%	93.4%
Job Acceptances 3 Months After Graduation	88.8%	93.3%	94.1%	85.9%	91.4%	89.8%	90.5%	89.9%	92.2%

A STRONG PAY PICTURE — BUT TROUBLE ON THE PLACEMENT FRONT

Yale’s success in consulting pushed its overall pay over the $200K line, where it joins the NYU Stern School of Business Class of 2023 and the Chicago Booth School of Business Class of 2023 — among what will presumably be several others. Median starting salary grew at Yale to $175K this year from $160,110, up more than 9%, powered in large part by a jump in the consulting median to $190K from $175K. While median signing bonus (reported by 82.1% of 2023 grads) was flat for a sixth straight year at $30,000, median year-end bonus (reported by 7.6%) grew to $30K from $20K. Put it all together and the end result for the 269 of 294 grads seeking employment this year is a pay median of $200,830, up 7.4% from $186,930 in 2022.

It wasn’t just consulting where Yalies’ salaries grew. Despite its industry-wide tribulations, tech saw growth in New Haven, with median salary climbing to $166,500 from $146K, up 14%. Tech had been on a four-year decline in terms of job placement, falling to 7.6% in 2022, but jumped to 10% in 2023. Also up this year: Finance grads’ pay, which jumped to $175K from $150K.

Pay for Yalies remains strong — as strong as ever. It’s in overall job offers and acceptances where the trouble signs appear. Like every top U.S. B-school that has so far reported 2023 employment figures, Yale reports a drop-off in both categories; and like other consulting feeder schools Michigan Ross School of Business and Duke Fuqua School of Business, the overall drop-off is in the 3-5% range. Offers at Yale fell 4.6 points and accepts dropped 4.5 points (see table above).

YALE MBA JOBS BY INDUSTRY 2015-2023

Industry	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Consulting	44.1%	46.0%	34.2%	36.9%	37.2%	34.9%	35.9%	30.8%	29.3%
Finance	22.2%	21.7%	25.1%	23.3%	24.0%	23.1%	21.8%	19.6%	24.5%
*Investment Banking*	11.5%	9.9%	13.8%	10.6%	10.6%	13.7%	12.1%	11.7%	11.6%
*Investment Management*	3.8%	4.6%	1.3%	4.2%	4.7%	4.3%	2.0%	2.1%	4.9%
*Diversified Finance*	3.8%	3.0%	4.2%	2.1%	4.0%	3.1%	5.2%	4.2%	5.8%
*PE/VC*	3.1%	4.2%	5.8%	6.4%	4.7%	2.0%	2.4%	1.7%	2.2%
Technology	10.0%	7.6%	10.0%	12.7%	12.8%	14.9%	14.1%	11.7%	14.2%
CPG/Retail	9.2%	11.4%	15.8%	11.9%	8.0%	9.8%	8.8%	12.1%	8.0%
Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals	3.1%	3.8%	2.9%	4.2%	5.1%	3.5%	1.6%	5.0%	4.9%
Nonprofit	2.3%	1.9%	1.3%	2.5%	2.6%	1.2%	5.2%	4.6%	4.4%
Manufacturing*	1.1%	0.8%	0.8%	1.7%	1.8%	2.0%	1.6%	0.4%	4.0%
Media/Entertainment	1.9%	0.4%	3.8%	1.3%	2.2%	2.0%	3.2%	2.5%	3.6%
Energy	2.3%	1.5%	2.9%	1.7%	1.5%	2.0%	2.0%	4.2%	3.1%
Real Estate	0.8%	2.3%	0.4%	0.8%	1.5%	1.2%	2.0%	1.7%	1.8%
Government	0.4%	0.8%	2.1%	1.3%	NA	1.6%	0.8%	3.3%	0.4%
Human Capital/Organizational Development/Executive Search	NA	0.4%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

*In 2021, transportation

INTERNSHIPS IN CONSULTING REMAIN ROBUST

Internships were strong again this summer for Yale MBAs, with a median weekly salary of $2,321, up 16% from $2,000 in 2022. As with its immediate predecessors, 100% of the members of the Class of 2024 who were seeking an internship found one; more than 43% did so in consulting, at a median weekly salary of $3,575. That’s up 19% over the consulting salary median reported last summer, and it’s more than any other Yale interns made in 2023 — even those who trained at investment banks ($3,365 per week).

In other words, Namaan Mian’s advice seems sound: Don’t worry, would-be consultants, the industry is not falling apart. But, as always, do the work to get the job you want.

“I would say don’t be worried, but start preparing early,” Mian says. “There are opportunities available, but you have to be strategic in the way that you pursue them. It’s basic blocking and tackling. MBAs have got to make sure that their resumes are A+ resumes. They’ve got to make sure that they’re networking early. They’ve got to be leveraging opportunities that they have through diversity conferences and diversity pathways at the firm. It is all the things that MBAs know that they have to be doing. They just actually have to make sure they execute and start early.”

See Yale SOM’s 2023 MBA employment report here.

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