Stanford MBAs Now In Striking Distance Of $300K Starting Pay

Stanford Graduate School of Business has released its MBA Class of 2023 employment report showing another big jump in total compensation. Elena Zhukova photo

By now the downturn in the MBA job market is well-documented. While some in the MBA Class of 2023 had a harder time than others finding work this summer and fall, every leading business school has reported fewer job offers and few acceptances compared to the Class of 2022. Many have reported their worst placement rates in years.

But the market has been harder on some schools’ graduates than others. Even as jobs have been scarcer, some schools have reported bigger paydays than ever — higher starting salaries, more robust signing and performance bonuses, bigger total compensation. While they haven’t escaped the challenging landscape completely unscathed, Stanford Graduate School of Business MBAs emphatically belong to this group, according to the school’s employment report released today (December 5).

Even against significant headwinds, Stanford’s MBAs remained the highest-paid in the world in 2023, with a new total compensation ceiling that suggests the school is only a year or two away from becoming the sole member of the $300K club. Average total compensation for Stanford grads reached more than $275K this year, up nearly $20K from 2022, as average base salary grew 3.7% to $189,010. Expected performance bonus grew nearly 9%, to an average of $99,347 — but most impressive of all, signing bonus grew an astounding 25% to an average of $42,249.

STRONG PAY NUMBERS, WEAK PLACEMENT RATES

Average base salary for Stanford MBAs is up 18.5% since the pre-pandemic 2019 class, and both average signing bonus and average performance bonus are up nearly 50% in that span (though it should be noted that 2019 was not a great year for bonuses for Stanford MBAs; see chart above). Average total comp, up 7.7% from last year, is up an impressive 28.3% since 2019. In fact Stanford MBAs haven't seen a year-over-year decline in total comp in more than 10 years, going back to the 2013 class; not all their peers can say the same.

Stanford's median numbers are less robust but still superb. Median base salary grew this year to $182,500, up 4.3% from $175,000 in 2022, and median total comp rose to $231,200, up 5.9% from $218,350. For comparison, the next-closest school in the median pay sweepstakes is Harvard Business School, which this year reported a total median pay of $220,100 — actually down slightly from 2022.

Stanford's gaudy pay data does a good job distracting from the fact that the school also reported its worst placement numbers in years. Job offers at three months post-graduation sunk to 89%, lower even than the pandemic class of 2020 (91%), while acceptances — normally a lower number for Stanford than most schools because of the high number of entrepreneurs in each class — were just 82%, lower than every class going back to 2016. Even the two pandemic classes of 2020 and 2021 managed job acceptance rates of 85% and 91%, respectively.

Given the challenging environment, Stanford's number of MBAs seeking employment was dramatically lower this year: 256 compared to last year's 309. Just 62% of the class went job seeking, down from 67% in 2022, 66% in 2021, 67% in 2020, and 72% in 2019.

TECH JOBS ARE FEWER BUT TECH PAY IS BETTER

Tech is always strong as an industry destination for Stanford MBAs; it was even the school's top industry in 2016 and 2018. But the widespread tech layoffs of 2021 and 2022 reverberated well into this year, and tech placement for Stanford MBAs dropped 6 percentage points in 2023, to 24% of the class. Stanford grads instead turned to finance in greater numbers, up 5 percentage points to 38%, while the third pillar of MBA employment, consulting, was flat at 15%.

Even as tech placement slumped, tech salaries grew, to an average $178,673 from $165,757, a nearly 8% increase. Not so with finance salaries, which actually declined slightly to $210,273 from $211,944. Consulting salaries were up nearly 5%, to $188,214 from $179,727. Health care, where 4% of the class found jobs in 2023, saw its salary average drop dramatically to $174,111 from $198,350, a more than 12% decline.

Geographically, Stanford MBAs continue to overwhelmingly remain in the United States, with 93% of the Class of 2023 finding work stateside — but where in the States they go to work continues to shift away from the West and toward the East Coast. Gradually since 2018, Stanford grads have shifted their preference away from the West, with the number this year dropping to just 50%, while the number going to the Northeast — New York and Boston — has grown steadily, this year climbing to its highest total, 31%. The previous five years:

• 2022: 96% North America, 58% West, 26% Northeast
• 2021: 93% NA, 56% West, 22% Northeast
• 2020: 89% NA, 60% West, 20% Northeast
• 2019: 87% NA, 61% West, 16% Northeast
• 2018: 89% NA, 68% West, 15% Northeast

STANFORD MBA CLASS OF 2023 PAY BY INDUSTRY

*Includes Education, Government, Hospitality/Travel, Non-Automotive Manufacturing, Retail, and Transportation & Logistics

CLASS OF 2023 HAS HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF ENTREPRENEURS IN YEARS 

There was no significant change this year in how Stanford MBAs found their jobs, with 54% of jobs school-facilitated — through the GSB network or other school activity or initiative — and 46% graduate-facilitated. That tracks with recent years:

• 2022: 57% school-facilitated versus 43% graduate-facilitated
• 2021: 54% to 46%
• 2020: 51% to 49%
• 2019: 58% to 42%

Entrepreneurs always make up a significant portion of Stanford MBA classes, and 2023 contained the most yet: 25% pursued their own venture, up from 19% in 2022, 17% in 2021, 21% in 2020, and just 13% in 2019. Meanwhile, 38% of graduating students launching a new venture or joining a startup this year were women, down from 46% in 2022. The same percentage of founders in the 2021 class were women (38%), up from 2020 (37%) but down from 2019 (40%).

Tech was still the primary industry for entrepreneurs in 2023, with 49% of new ventures in the space, up from 47% in 2022, 37% in 2021, 33% in 2020, and 27% in 2019. Twelve percent of this year's new ventures were in health care, down from 13% 2022 (8% in 2021, 12% in 2020, 6% in 2019); finance accounted for 9% of new ventures (6% in 2022, 17% in 2021, 21% in 2020, 13% 2019), and nonprofit/social innovation, after a brief flash before the coronavirus pandemic, continued to fizzle, with just 1% of new ventures in 2023 (1% in 2022, 2% in 2021, NA in 2020, 15% in 2019).

STANFORD MBA INDUSTRIES 2014-2023

DON'T MISS HARVARD HIT HARD BY THE MBA JOB MARKET: OFFERS, ACCEPTS & TOTAL COMP ALL DECLINE and YALE MBAs JOINED THE $200K PAY CLUB IN 2023