Data Dive: 2024 MBA Salaries, Bonuses & Job Placement Rates At 30 Top-Ranked B-Schools

We know from individual business schools’ employment reports that 2024 was a tough year for MBAs on the job hunt. Here, in one place, are the numbers, in all their stark detail, from 30 of the leading U.S. B-schools.

To begin with: Only two schools among the 30 reported job offer and acceptance rates for their MBAs higher than the classes that graduated in 2020. In other words, every school included in this story but two — WashU Olin Business School in St. Louis and Indiana Kelley School of Business — had lower placement rates in 2024 than they did in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Two other schools, Virginia Darden School of Business and Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, were flat at 93% offers and 90% accepts, respectively, in both 2020 and 2024.) Four schools were down double-digits in job offers from their 2020 levels, and five were down as much in accepts.

The MBA job market really began to tighten in 2023. From 2023 to 2024, all but two schools — Columbia Business School and Washington Foster School of Business — reported declines in offers and accepts. In that one year alone, several reported double-digit declines in both.

BIGGEST MBA JOB OFFER DECLINES 2023-2024

2025 P&Q Rank	School	2024 Job Offers After 3 Months	2023 Job Offers After 3 Months	2-Year Trend
26	Rice (Jones)	72.2%	90.0%	-17.8
24	Notre Dame (Mendoza)	74.0%	91.0%	-17.0
23	Emory (Goizueta)	81.8%	96.0%	-14.2
9	Cornell (Johnson)	81.0%	94.0%	-13.0
15	CMU (Tepper)	81.4%	93.6%	-12.2
29	Michigan (Ross)	84.6%	95.9%	-11.3
3	Chicago (Booth)	86.8%	95.6%	-8.8
14	UCLA (Anderson)	78.0%	86.8%	-8.8

Source: Business school employment reports

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BIGGEST MBA JOB ACCEPTANCE DECLINES 2023-2024

2025 P&Q Rank	School	2023 Job Acceptance After 3 Months	2023 Job Acceptance After 3 Months	2-Year Trend
24	Notre Dame (Mendoza)	72.0%	90.0%	-18.0
23	Emory (Goizueta)	79.6%	96.0%	-16.4
26	Rice (Jones)	72.3%	87.0%	-14.7
9	Cornell (Johnson)	79.0%	93.0%	-14.0
15	CMU (Tepper)	79.0%	91.5%	-12.5
3	Chicago (Booth)	84.1%	94.3%	-10.2
10	Duke (Fuqua)	82.0%	92.0%	-10.0
29	Michigan (Ross)	83.7%	93.7%	-10.0

Source: Business school employment reports

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PORTRAIT OF A JOB MARKET IN TURMOIL

Among the schools that were down last year: every M7 business school. As one Harvard Business School official who oversees career development and alumni relations put it, “We’re not immune to the difficulties of the job market. Going to Harvard is not going to be a differentiator. You have to have the skills.”

An HBS grad last summer wrote a succinct summary of the situation: “It’s definitely a bad market. But most of my friends who tempered their expectations were able to land great positions. HBS students (are) self-selecting out of certain jobs that may be seen as a ‘step down’ from their roles before the MBA despite them being perfectly great well-paying jobs. HBS students tend to come from wealthier families and backgrounds that can stomach a few months of unemployment. Anecdotally, the only people I know in the class who are still unemployed are either rich international students or people who are being way too picky about their next role.”

For elite MBAs, then, the world is not coming to an end. But many more have found that what jobs there were in 2024 paid worse than what was available a year earlier — a hard reality to stomach in a world where the price of an MBA does nothing but climb.

In a year that saw a continuation of the implosion of the tech industry and a major roiling of another of the three major MBA industries in consulting, starting base salaries for MBAs fell for those coming out of all but two schools — MIT Sloan School of Management and Emory Goizueta Business School. And where they were not flat, signing bonuses were down. Overall, of the dozen schools with enough data to calculate total median pay figures — salary plus bonus, weighted according to how many reported receiving a bonus — two-thirds saw declines. 

MEDIAN MBA TOTAL PAY AT THE ELITE U.S. B-SCHOOLS: 2023-2024

School	Median Total Pay 2024	Median Total Pay 2023	Difference
Northwestern Kellogg	$197,000	$200,500	-$3,500 (1.7%)
Stanford GSB	$268,490	$277,268	-$8,778 (3.2%)
Chicago Booth	$197,010	$203,430	-$6,420 (3.2%)
Harvard	$221,800	$220,100	+$1,700 (0.8%)
Dartmouth Tuck	$200,200	$199,900	+$300 (0.2%)
Columbia	$198,996	$201,780	-$2,784 (1.4%)
Yale SOM	$183,712	$200,830	-$17,118 (8.5%)
Duke Fuqua	$201,100	$198,400	+$2,700 (1.4%)
NYU Stern	$202,000	$201,340	+$660 (0.3%)
MIT Sloan	$214,450	$217,780	-$3,330 (1.5%)
UC Berkeley Haas	$184,435	$188,354	-$3,919 (2.1%)
Michigan Ross	$195,800	$202,000	-$6,200 (3.1%)

Source: B-school employment reports & Poets&Quants 

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HIGHS & LOWS IN SALARY, BONUS & PLACEMENT

In 2024, six schools of the 30 examined by P&Q shared the distinction of having the highest median salary at $175K. Stanford Graduate School of Business, once again this year, was No. 1 for the highest average salary, at $187,504, though that was a slight decline from the mark set by its Class of 2023 (see below for links to P&Q‘s reports on the GSB’s and other schools’ employment data). The lowest average salary was at WashU Olin: $126,773, a 4.5% decline from the previous year.

The school with the highest reported signing bonus was Washington Foster, at $39,283, while Rochester Simon Business School reported the lowest at $26,470.

P&Q calculates overall pay by weighting bonus by multiplying the percentage of those reporting it, then multiplying salary by 100 and adding the two, then diving the total by 100. The number that yields is a fairer representation of total compensation than simply adding bonus and salary, which is the policy of some B-schools. In this way we find that in 2024 only a few schools saw median pay go up: HBS (+$1,700 to $221,800), Dartmouth Tuck School of Business (+$300 to $200,200), Duke Fuqua School of Business (+$2,700 to $201,100), and NYU Stern School of Business (+$660 to $202,000). The biggest drop in total pay: Yale School of Management, which saw a 8.5% decline, down more than $17K to $183,712.

In placement rates, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania reported the highest percentage of graduates getting job offers three months after graduation in 2024, at 93.1%, just barely beating Virginia Darden and Indiana Kelley, both of which reported 93% offer rates. Rice Jones Graduate School of Business reported the lowest rate, 72.2%.

Virginia Darden and Vanderbilt Owen shared the highest job acceptance rate after 90 days, 90%, while Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business had the lowest rate, 72%. An important note: All of the offer and accept rates listed above, high as well as low, represent declines from 2023 as well as 2020 for the schools mentioned.

SEE POETS&QUANTS’ COVERAGE OF THE 2024 EMPLOYMENT REPORTS OF THE TOP U.S. MBA PROGRAMS:

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

Another M7 Tale Of Woe In The MBA Job Market, This Time From Chicago Booth

Wharton MBA Jobs: Salaries Flat, Offers & Accepts Each Fall

Dartmouth Tuck MBAs ‘Got Results,’ Dodged Worst Of What 2024 Threw At Them

Tech’s Woes Crystallized In Duke MBA Jobs Report

Canary In The Coal Mine? Georgia Tech Report Hints At Challenging MBA Jobs Landscape

Nearly 1/4 Of Job-Seeking Class Of 2024 Harvard MBAs Couldn’t Find Work After Months Of Searching

Another Tough 2024 MBA Jobs Report: Offers Plummet & Pay Falls At Michigan Ross

For Job-Seeking NYU Stern MBAs, 2024 Was A Tougher Landscape Than Covid-Crushed 2020

Another M7 School Reports MBA Salaries & Pay Slipping In 2024: Kellogg

Stanford MBA Class Of 2026: Apps Up But GSB’s Diversity Takes A Hit

Setbacks In 2024 Placement & Salary For Grads Of Another Top U.S. MBA Program

For The First Time In 22 Years, Tech Is Not The Top MBA Industry At UC-Berkeley

Darden MBA Salary Average Declines For The First Time Since Covid-19

Ho-Ho-Holy Falling Job Offers! MIT MBAs’ Historic Struggles Chronicled In New Jobs Report

Startup Hub Babson Reports MBA Pay & Bonus Growth In 2023, But Jobs Were Harder To Find

How CMU Tepper Confronted — And Overcame — A Challenging 2023 MBA Job Market

For Columbia MBAs, 2023 Was A Historically Difficult Job Market

Yale SOM’s 2024 Struggles Mirrored MBA Peers’: Median Pay Down 8.5%

MEDIAN MBA SALARIES AT THE ELITE U.S. B-SCHOOLS: 2020-2024

2025 P&Q Rank	School	Median Starting Base Salary (2024)	Median Starting Base Salary (2023)	2-Year Salary Change	Median Starting Base Salary (2022)	Median Starting Base Salary (2021)	Median Starting Base Salary (2020)	5-Year Salary Change
1	Northwestern (Kellogg)	$170,000	$175,000	-$5,000	$165,000	$150,000	$144,000	$26,000
2	Stanford GSB	$185,000	$182,500	$2,500	$175,000	$158,400	$156,000	$29,000
3	Chicago (Booth)	$175,000	$180,000	-$5,000	$175,000	$155,000	$150,000	$25,000
4	Harvard Business School	$175,000	$175,000	None	$175,000	$150,500	$150,000	$25,000
5	Virginia (Darden)	$175,000	$175,000	None	$175,000	$144,500	$139,945	$35,055
6	Dartmouth (Tuck)	$175,000	$175,000	None	$175,000	$150,000	$150,000	$25,000
7	Columbia	$175,000	$175,000	None	$175,000	$150,000	$150,000	$25,000
8	Yale SOM	$160,000	$175,000	-$15,000	$160,110	$140,400	$140,000	$20,000
9	Cornell (Johnson)	$175,000	$175,000	None	$165,000	$140,000	$140,000	$35,000
12	Penn (Wharton)	$175,000	$175,000	None	$175,000	$155,000	$150,000	$25,000
13	MIT (Sloan)	$169,550	$175,000	-$5,450	$165,000	$150,000	$150,000	$19,550
17	UC-Berkeley (Haas)	$160,000	$166,650	-$6,650	$155,000	$149,000	$140,000	$20,000

Source: Business school employment reports

MORE DATA WRINKLES: A FEW BRIGHT SPOTS

Only two B-schools reported actual average MBA salary increases from 2023 to 2024: MIT Sloan, up $1,275 to $169,370, and Emory Goizueta, up $1,551 to $153,868. All others that reported averages — 21 schools — were down. Rochester Simon’s was the biggest drop in average salary: down $11,352 to $129,093. Yale SOM had the biggest drop in median salary: down $15K to $160K.

Three B-schools reported average signing bonus increases year to year: WashU Olin, up $10,948 to $37,748, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, $1,160 to $29,405, and Emory Goizueta, up $2,585 to $36,530. The biggest drop in bonus was at Rochester Simon, down $12,471 to $26,470, followed by Georgetown McDonough School of Business, down $9,471 to $33,854, and Stanford GSB, down $8,282 to $33,967. Sixteen schools reported bonus average declines from 2023 to 2024; three reported declines from 2020 to 2024.

In job offers and acceptances, two schools managed increases in placement rates between 2023 and 2024: Columbia, which grew both its offer and accept rates by 5% and 5.4%, respectively, and Washington Foster, which inched up its accept rate by 0.2%. All others reported declines — and some were big. Six schools had double-digit offer declines, led by Rice Jones’s 17.8-point drop to 72.2%. Eight had double-digit accept declines, led by Notre Dame’s 18-point slide to 72%.

Among the top 10 ranked schools, the average offer decline was 5.6 percentage points (nine schools excluding Columbia), topped by Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management’s 13-point drop to 81%; the average accept decline was 6.6 points (again, nine schools without CBS), again topped by Cornell Johnson, this time a 14-point slide to 79%.

BIGGEST DECLINE IN SIGN-ON BONUS: 2023-2024

2025 P&Q Rank	School	Average Sign-On Bonus (2024)	Average Sign-On Bonus (2023)	2-Year Bonus Change
28	Rochester (Simon)	$26,470	$38,941	-$12,471
25	Georgetown (McDonough)	$33,854	$43,325	-$9,471
2	Stanford GSB	$33,967	$42,249	-$8,282
19	Washington (Foster)	$39,283	$44,537	-$5,254
24	Notre Dame (Mendoza)*	$30,000	$35,000	-$5,000
13	MIT (Sloan)	$35,900	$38,989	-$3,089
5	Virginia (Darden)	$34,562	$37,588	-$3,026
14	UCLA (Anderson)	$33,698	$36,174	-$2,476

*Median

Source: Business school employment reports

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HOW 2024 WAS BETTER THAN 2020 — AND HOW IT WAS WORSE

MBA salaries have gone down in the last year but here is some perspective: Since the coronavirus year of 2020, in most cases, they are up significantly. At the top 10 B-schools, the average increase over five years is 16.7%  at the eight schools for which we have comparison data; at the 26 schools in this story that we can make the comparison for, salary growth is 16.3%.

Michigan Ross School of Business saw the biggest raw-dollar gain in median salary, up $35K to $170K (despite losing $5K from 2023 to 2024), while Stanford saw the biggest gain in average dollars, up $27,960 to $187,504. The biggest gain by percentage belongs to Georgia Tech Scheller, up 20.8% to $146,260. The smallest five-year increase in salary: USC Marshall School of Business, 8.7% to $144,442. Five schools report no change in median salary between 2023 and 2024 (and two are NA); none report no change between 2020 and 2024 (but four are NA).

In terms of bonuses, the biggest increase across five years belongs to WashU Olin, up $10,799 to $37,748, with Emory Goizueta close behind at
a $8,454 increase to $36,530, followed by Vanderbilt Owen’s $7,858 jump to $34,849.

Four schools saw double-digit drops in job offers from their 2020 rates to their 2024 rates, and five schools saw the same in job acceptances in that span. The biggest in both cases came at Rice Jones: down 17.8 pts to 72.2% in offers and down 16.7 to 72.3% in accepts. Only Washington Olin, up 7 points in offers and 5 in accepts, and Indiana Kelley, up 3.3 points in accepts, can claim improvement from 2020 to 2024.

See page 2 for complete tables of 2024 MBA starting salaries and signing bonuses at 30 top-ranked U.S. business schools, with comparison data from 2020-2023. See page 3 for placement rate data, job offers and acceptances, from the same years for the same 30 schools.