Columbia Wins: Only B-School To Report A Rise In MBA Job Offers & Acceptances In 2024

Across the board, 2024 wiped out progress on the MBA job front at business schools large and small. Pronounced declines in the tech and consulting sectors dragged down overall placement rates this year at graduation and three months after in employment report after employment report.

But one school has defied the moment and gone against the tide, reporting increases in job offers and acceptances — and not just nominal ones: Columbia Business School, where offers at three months increased to 89% from 84% in 2023, and accepts were up to 86.4% from 81%.

To put this in context, the increases come after a catastrophic 2023 for Columbia, when both offers and accepts after 90 days dropped 11 percentage points from 95% and 92%, respectively, in 2022. And a little more context reveals that the increase in job availability was offset by the second year in a row of declining overall compensation for Columbia MBAs.

TOTAL MEDIAN COMPENSATION FOR COLUMBIA MBAs 2013-2024 

Year	Total Median Compensation	Median Base Salary	Median Signing Bonus	% Getting Signing Bonus	Median Other Guaranteed	% Getting Other Guaranteed
2024	$198,996	$175,000	$30,000	71.3%	$21,185	12.3%
2023	$201,780	$175,000	$30,000	71.7%	$31,000	17.0%
2022	$203,252	$175,000	$30,000	82.6%	$32,150	10.8%
2021	$178,380	$150,000	$30,000	73.8%	$30,000	20.8%
2020	$174,313	$150,000	$30,300	67.7%	$25,000	15.2%
2019	$177,970	$150,000	$30,000	67.9%	$50,000	15.2%
2018	$155,248	$130,000	$30,000	66.3%	$28,500	18.8%
2017	$149,890	$125,000	$25,500	65.7%	$25,000	20.5%
2016	$147,000	$125,000	$25,000	66.3%	$25,000	21.8%
2015	$145,500	$125,000	$25,000	62.4%	$25,000	19.9%
2014	$139,602	$119,400	$25,000	62.3%	$22,390	21.1%
2013	$134,800	$110,000	$30,000	67.6%	$20,000	21.7%

Source: Columbia Business School

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TOTAL COMP DOWN FOR A 2ND STRAIGHT YEAR 

Columbia MBAs maintained the median base salary of $175,000 that their two predecessor classes reported, and they also reached a median signing bonus of at least $30,000 for a seventh straight year. But median other guaranteed compensation dropped to its lowest level since 2013 (see above), and that clipped Columbia’s compensation wings a bit. For the second straight year, the school lost ground in total median comp, falling 1.4% to $198,996. Since 2022, total median comp at CBS has dropped just over 2%.

(Poets&Quants calculates compensation by combining base salary and signing and other bonuses and weighting the bonuses by the percentage of those receiving them. B-schools often use different measures to get a comp number, sometimes simply adding salary and bonuses.)

Part of the problem for Columbia wage-wise is that consulting, the big earner at a median salary of $188K this year (down from $190K last year), was way down on the hiring front, with 30.6% of the class going into the industry from 36.3% in 2023, while lower-paying fields are up. One such field is healthcare: up to 3.8% of this year’s class from 2.6% last year and 1.5% in 2022.

Tech’s troubles are also weighing things down a bit, and at CBS tech has been literally halved, going from 19.8% of the Class of 2020 to 10% this year.

One area where Columbia’s Class of 2024 stood out: Someone in a consulting role reported a high base salary of $370K, eclipsing the $350K high from the Class of 2023. The high singing bonus this year was $151K and the high other bonus was $225K.

A WILLINGNESS TO GO ABROAD

For years Columbia's employment reports have provided interesting insights into the motivations of Columbia MBAs, giving the top three reasons for accepting a job offer. In past the school's carers team included the percentages of how many students gave each response: In 2020 the top three reasons were job content (14.4%), growth potential (14.0%), and opportunity for advancement (13.6%); in 2021, they were firm culture and people (15.5%), job content (13.4%), and advancement opportunities (13.4%).

In 2022, CBS grads chose firm culture and people (15.1%), company reputation (14.6%), and advancement opportunities (13.0%); and last year, 17.5% chose advancement opportunities, 14.3% firm culture and people, and 13.8% company reputation. This year, sans the percentages, the three reasons are advancement opportunities, company reputation, and preferred industry.

That's not the only change to the content of the CBS employment report. Source-of-opportunity information — where students found jobs, whether through school-facilitated means or otherwise — is gone now for both grads and interns. So are job and internship satisfaction ratings: In past years, the school asked grads and interns to rate their satisfaction on a 1-5 scale. In 2023, 94% of graduates reported their job satisfaction as a 4 or 5 on scale of 1-5, which comports with past years: In 2022, 95% of students rated a 4 or 5; in 2021, 97%; in 2020, 94%; and in both 2019 and 2018, 93%. This year, there is no scale.

Geographically, Columbia MBAs have always mostly stayed in the U.S., but this year they showed more willingness to explore outside its borders: 79% of the Class of 2024 found work inside the U.S., down from 86% in each of the previous two classes; 9% went to Asia, up from 4%; 5% to Europe, same as last year; 4% to Central/South America, twice the amount as 2023; and 3% to Africa/Mideast, triple the 2023 number.

Those in Asia reported a median $115,069 (compared to U.S. median $175K), Europe $98,296, Central and South America $94,078, and Africa and Middle East $135,000. For the entire class, median other guaranteed compensation is actually highest not in the U.S. but in Africa/Mideast: $50K compared to $30K.

COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA JOBS BY INDUSTRY 2019-2024

Industry	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Consulting	30.6%	36.3%	33.6%	33.4%	34.0%	32.6%
Financial Services	35.9%	35.7%	36.9%	36.0%	33.2%	34.3%
Manufacturing	2.4%	0.9%	3.2%	4.1%	4.0%	6.8%
Consumer Products	5.2%	3.2%	NA	NA	NA	NA
Media/Tech	13.1%	12.8%	16.0%	17.0%	19.8%	13.8%
Real Estate	2.5%	3.3%	3.6%	4.5%	1.4%	4.1%
Healthcare	3.8%	2.6%	1.5%	2.3%	3.8%	3.9%
Retail	0.0%	0.8%	0.6%	NA	NA	<1%
Nonprofit/Govt.	1.3%	1.6%	NA	1.4%	1.7%	1.4%

Source: Columbia Business School

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LATE REPORTS BESPEAK TOUGH NEWS

Columbia published its employment report about two months earlier than last year, but many top schools have released their reports much later than usual — a good indicator of the tenor of what those reports contain. At this late date, a handful of high-profile schools still have not released their 2024 data. Those that have, have shown consistent struggles in placement and pay:

Stanford GSB: Average base salary shrank by 1% to $187,504, average signing bonus dropped by nearly 20% to $33,967, and total compensation was down 3.2%, to $268,490. Job offers at three months dropped to 88% from 89% last year. Acceptances fell from 82% in 2023 to 80% this year.

Dartmouth Tuck School of Business: While the class median salary and bonus were flat for a third straight year, at $175K and $30K, respectively, MBAs receiving a bonus grew to 84% from 83% — increasing the total compensation from $199,900 last year to $200,200 this year. Ninety-one percent of the Class of 2024 received offers after 90 days, and 89% accepted, only the second time in 11 years that Tuck grads have failed to reach 95% job offers.

NYU Stern School of Business: Stern Class of 2024 MBAs report an average salary of $166,148, down 1.2% from their predecessors, and an average signing bonus of $37,028, down 4.5%. Total compensation dropped 1.4% to $199,473. Offers at graduation were down nearly 5 percentage points to 80.6%, while offers by three months after graduation (86.1%) were down more than 8 points.

Virginia Darden School of Business: Darden MBAs reported an average base salary of $163,710, down 2.5% from the average reported by their colleagues in the Class of 2023. The school’s average signing bonus also fell this year, by nearly 8%, to $34,562. Class of 2024 job offers at graduation plummeted by nearly 6 percentage points, to 86.5% of the class; acceptances at graduation dropped more than 6 points, to 83.4%. Offers by three months post-grad were down from 95.4% to 92.9%, and acceptances at 90 days were down from 94.2% to 90.1%.

Michigan Ross School of Business: Median starting salaries for Ross MBAs fell by $5,000 to $170,000, and median overall pay for graduates dropped as well, to $195,800, a decline of 3.1%. Just 77.5% of Ross’s latest class reported receiving offers by graduation this spring, down from 90.5% a year earlier. After three months, the overall class offer number had climbed to 84.6%, after six months, more than 90% of Ross MBAs had job offers.

UC-Berkeley Haas: Average base salary for Haas Class of 2024 MBAs was $159,412, down from $162,831 for their predecessors, while the average signing bonus dropped to $34,740 from $36,777. Average total compensation dropped by 2.1% to $184,425 from $188,354. About 86% of the 207 graduates seeking post-graduation employment received offers within three months of graduation, down from 90%, with 84% accepting offers within that window, down from 89%.

Northwestern Kellogg: Median salary for Kellogg grads is down $5K, to $170,000, and median overall compensation is down 1.7%, to $197,000. Meanwhile both offers and acceptances for Kellogg MBAs at three months post-graduation were down by 5 percentage points compared to 2023, to 90% and 87%, respectively.

Duke Fuqua: Duke MBAs maintained their median salary of $175K and median signing bonus of $30K. Because a larger percentage (87%) of the 340 grads reported receiving a bonus this year, Fuqua actually saw a small increase in its MBAs' total compensation, to $201,100 from $198,400 last year. But in placement rates Duke took big hits: From 93% of Fuqua MBAs receiving an offer by 90 days post-graduation in 2023 and 92% accepting, to 85% offers and 82% accepts.

MAJOR EMPLOYERS OF COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL MBAs 2019-2024

Employer	2024 Hires	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Amazon	14	18	23	26	22	14
Bain	12	30	33	23	24	29
Bank of America Merrill Lynch	10	8	14	8	7	4
Barclays	6	4	10	2	3	7
BCG	29	39	44	35	30	28
Citi	10	7	9	8	7	6
Credit Suisse	-	6	8	9	7	8
Deloitte	10	17	28	16	21	21
EY-Parthenon	6	4	7	6	11	6
Evercore Partners	9	4	9	6	9	8
Goldman Sachs	6	7	17	13	14	15
Google	5	14	12	11	14	8
Guggenheim	-	3	1	2	6	2
JP Morgan Chase	11	9	14	8	6	12
Lazard	8	5	4	4	5	2
McKinsey	50	77	78	55	45	45
Moelis	5	4	3	3	5	4
Morgan Stanley	8	18	7	7	6	8
Oliver Wyman	4	6	1	2	2	0
Pfizer	4	3	3	2	2	4
PwC Strategy&	12	15	16	5	14	17

Source: Columbia Business School

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DON'T MISS FOR COLUMBIA MBAs, 2023 WAS A HISTORICALLY DIFFICULT JOB MARKET and