2024 Brought Small Salary, Big Bonus Setbacks For Stanford MBAs

Stanford Graduate School of Business Class of 2024 MBAs graduated into a tougher job market than their predecessors

Stanford Graduate School of Business released its MBA Class of 2024 employment data this week showing declines in pay metrics for the first time in more than a decade. Average base salary shrank by 1% to $187,504, average signing bonus dropped by nearly 20% to $33,967, and total compensation — which Poets&Quants calculates by combining the two figures plus expected performance bonus and weighting the bonuses by the percentage of grads reporting that they received them — was down 3.2%, to $268,490.

It’s the first time since 2013 that total pay for MBAs has shrunk at Stanford; even during the Covid-19 pandemic, GSB grads’ pay didn’t slip. Just one year ago, even as trouble signs were building for B-school grads, Stanford made such a significant jump in salary and compensation that it seemed reasonable to believe that within one or two classes it would have graduated the first-ever class to report pay packages averaging $300K.

PLACEMENT RATES KEEP DROPPING

By 2023, average base salary for Stanford MBAs had risen 24% since the pre-pandemic 2019 class, with both average signing bonus and average performance bonus up nearly 50% in that four-year span. Average total compensation was up an impressive 28.3% between 2019 and 2023. Now the numbers have come back to earth a bit, but only a bit: salary is up 23% since the year before Covid, signing bonus is up 20%, total comp is up 24%.

It's a step backward, but except for signing bonus — where 2023 could be seen as an outlier, and 2024 a correction — not a major one. Stanford is still the salary king, with the highest average of any U.S. B-school (at least among the schools that have so far reported their 2024 data, though there are only a handful within striking distance of Stanford to begin with), and a median base salary that actually grew this year: from $182,500 to $185,000, powered by an increase in the median for international grads. The average expected performance bonus was up, too, to $100,535 from $99,347.

A bigger concern for Stanford and its MBAs is finding jobs in the first place. Placement rates keep going down. Job offers at three months dropped to 88% from 89% last year, when we pointed out that they were already lower than the coronavirus-impacted Class of 2020 (91%). Acceptances fell from 82% in 2023 to 80% this year. Part of this is explained by the fact that Stanford always has a lower number than its peer B-schools because of the high number of entrepreneurs in each class. Yet even the two pandemic classes of 2020 and 2021 managed job acceptance rates of 85% and 91%, respectively.

Another number that keeps dropping is the pool of MBAs seeking employment. This year it was 249, down from 256 last year, which was down dramatically from 309 in 2022. Just 58% of the class went job hunting, down from 62% in 2023, which was down from 67% in 2022, 66% in 2021, 67% in 2020, and 72% in 2019.

STANFORD MBAs WHO STAY IN THE WEST FELL BY A 1/3 IN LAST 6 YEARS

Much has been made of the collapse of the tech industry in Silicon Valley and beyond, and much discussion had about the impact of the hundreds of thousands of layoffs on feeder schools like UC-Berkeley's Haas School of Business. That impact is less pronounced in Stanford's 2024 employment report. Tech employment at the GSB is down for a second straight year, to 22% of the class from 24%, and the median signing bonus reported by tech MBAs dropped significantly to $17,500 from $25,000 — but median and mean salaries for techies rose, $177,500 to $185,000 and $178,673 to $187,645, respectively, and tech salaries remain among the highest in the 75th percentile of all salaries reported by Stanford grads. A Stanford MBA still opens doors in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Increasingly, it opens doors 3,000 miles away, too. Of the 91% of the Class of 2024 finding work stateside, 45% stayed in the West, 31% went to the Northeast, and there was small upward movement in the Midwest, South, Southwest. That West number represents a huge drop-off — a decline of about one-third — since 2018. The geographic spread of Stanford MBAs over the previous six years:

2023: 93% North America, 50% West, 31% Northeast
2022: 96% NA, 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 2024 PAY BY INDUSTRY

Industry	% of 2024 Class	Median Base Salary	Average Base Salary	25th Percentile	75th Percentile	Median Expected Performance Bonus	Average Expected Performance Bonus	Median Signing Bonus	Average Signing Bonus
FINANCE	37%	$200,000	$201,794	$175,000	$225,000	$150,000	$163,208	$30,000	$36,313
Private Equity	20%	$200,000	$201,714	$180,000	$215,000	$175,000	$164,894	$25,000	$36,923
Investment Mgt.& Hedge Funds	9%	$225,000	$212,083	$197,500	$225,000	$150,000	$238,150	$30,000	$31,667
Venture Capital	7%	$200,000	$201,794	$161,000	$250,000	$50,000	$61,000	$22,500	$32,833
I-Banking	2%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
TECHNOLOGY	22%	$185,000	$187,645	$165,000	$200,000	$29,625	$33,098	$17,500	$38,000
Enterprise	9%	$180,000	$191,000	$175,000	$202,500	NA	NA	$15,000	$55,000
Consumer Electronics	6%	$187,500	$191,300	$170,000	$200,000	$23,125	$24,525	NA	NA
FinTech	5%	$180,000	$168,611	$162,500	$195,000	NA	NA	NA	NA
Other Tech	2%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
CONSULTING	14%	$190,000	$180,250	$175,000	$192,000	$40,000	$48,531	$30,000	$36,225
HEALTHCARE	6%	$160,000	$158,636	$147,500	$172,500	$29,000	$26,000	$27,500	$25,833
NON-AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURING	2%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
CPG	2%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
ENERGY	5%	$165,000	$166,700	$160,000	$170,000	NA	NA	NA	NA
MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT	5%	$150,000	$187,857	$145,000	$225,000	NA	NA	NA	NA
GOVERNMENT	2%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
REAL ESTATE	2%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
OTHER	4%	$175,000	$231,000	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

Source: Stanford GSB

TECH FOUNDERS DWINDLE

There was no 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 is identical to 2023 and tracks with previous years:

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

As always, entrepreneurs make up a significant portion of the latest Stanford MBA class, at 23%, down from last year's record-setting 25%. In 2022, 19% of the class pursued their own venture, up from 17% in 2021, 21% in 2020, and just 13% in 2019. One way in which the tech industry implosion can be seen written in Stanford's jobs report: Tech has long been the primary industry for GSB entrepreneurs, but in 2024 that was not the case. Just 28% of entrepreneurs went into tech while 35% chose "other," including 28% who chose "Search Funds." Consider that in 2023, tech accounted for 49% of new ventures, up from 47% in 2022, 37% in 2021, 33% in 2020, and 27% in 2019. In 2023, too, "other" was just 15% of entrepreneurs and search funds 12%.

Meanwhile, 42% of graduating students launching a new venture or joining a startup in 2023 were women, up from 42% in 2023, which was down from 46% in 2022.

STANFORD MBA INDUSTRIES 2017-2024

Industry - %	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
FINANCE	37	38	33	33	34	33	31	31
Private Equity	20	18	14	15	15	16	13	15
Investment Mgt.	9	2	5	4	7	3	5	3
Venture Capital	7	13	12	11	9	9	9	7
I-Banking	2	NA	NA	NA	1	1	2	1
Other Finance	NA	5	2	4	2	1	1	3
TECHNOLOGY	22	24	30	29	28	24	33	25
Enterprise	9	10	10	6	13	NA	NA	NA
Consumer Electronics	6	9	7	14	11	NA	2	1
FinTech	5	2	7	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Other Tech	2	3	4	NA	4	1	2	3
CONSULTING	14	15	15	18	15	18	18	20
HEALTHCARE	6	4	5	5	4	6	5	4
NONPROFIT	NA	1	1	NA	1	1	4	3
CPG	2	3	2	2	4	3	2	4
ENERGY	5	3	2	1	1	1	1	1
MEDIA/ENTERTAINMENT	5	2	5	4	3	3	3	1
RETAIL	NA	NA	NA	NA	1	1	NA	2
GOVERNMENT	2	NA	1	NA	0	NA	NA	NA
REAL ESTATE	2	2	2	2	3	2	1	3
HOSPITALITY	NA	NA	NA	1	1	1	NA	NA
OTHER	4	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

Source: Stanford GSB

DON'T MISS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 22 YEARS, TECH IS NOT THE TOP MBA INDUSTRY AT UC-BERKELEY and ANOTHER TOUGH 2024 MBA JOBS REPORT: OFFERS PLUMMET & PAY FALLS AT MICHIGAN ROSS