P&Q’s Must Reads: Consulting Pay: What MBAs Earned In 2025

Hello everyone  — Welcome back to Poets&Quants’ Must Reads, a quick, digestible recap of the top business school news, sponsored by CentreCourt, P&Q’s virtual admission events. 

I’m your host, Kristy Bleizeffer, and I’ll be highlighting the most important P&Q stories you might have missed. So, let’s get to it.  

 No. 1: Consulting Pay: What MBAs Earned In 2025  

Consulting Management, the leading trade magazine on the industry, released its Consulting Salaries Report for 2026 with a bit of a warning: The era of automatic, year-over-year starting salary increases is over – at least for now.” 

Firms are able to hold the line on compensation not because consulting is struggling, but because it has become more efficient, more selective, and more strategically disciplined about talent investment.  

The annual report provides pay data for over 130 consulting firms, separating them between Undergraduate and Master’s degree hires and MBA and PhD hires.   

And we break down the data, and what it means for you, in this story, now up in our trending tab. 

No. 2: How One Business School In Minneapolis Is Navigating The ICE Surge 

As federal immigration enforcement surged across Minneapolis, the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business found itself navigating fear, uncertainty, and moral complexity — even as its campuses remained physically untouched. 

In this deeply reported story, we look at how Opus leaders prepared students and faculty for the possibility of federal agents on campus, why many students say they feel safer at school than at home, and how professors are bringing the moment into the classroom as a real-time lesson in leadership, ethics, and institutional responsibility. 

Find it on our homepage. 

No. 3: MIT Tops World University Rankings For Business & Economics  

Which universities actually deliver when you look beyond the MBA? In this data-heavy breakdown, we unpack Times Higher Education’s 2026 World University Rankings for Business & Economics — and why MIT once again claimed the top spot, beating out Stanford, Tsinghua, and Oxford. 

We explain how THE evaluates business education across teaching, research, industry ties, and international reach, why Asian universities are surging into the Top 10, and where the methodology raises questions for prospective students. If you want the big-picture view of global business education — and what rankings do (and don’t) tell you — this one’s worth a read. 

Find it in our rankings tab. 

No. 4: Our Weekly Round Up of  News You Can Use 

No matter where you are in your MBA journey, we bring several helpful stories for you this week. 

 First up: MBA Applications Slump Giving Hope For Round. With international applications falling for top U.S. MBAs, this commentary from Matt Symonds and Fortuna Admissions breaks down what that might mean for domestic hopefuls. Find it in our trending tab. 

Next: What Is ‘Too Much Information’ In MBA Applications? How To Walk The Fine Line. This article, up now on our homepage, explains what to share and what not to when telling your personal story. Find this helpful article in our admissions hub. 

Finally, also in our admission hub: The Tutoring Startup Turning MBA Mentors Into Lifelong Role Models 

And, that’s it for this week’s Must Reads recap.  

I also want to alert school seekers to our events tab from our main menu. There, you’ll find all the upcoming admissions events for a range of degrees and programs including full-time and online MBAs, specialized masters, entrepreneurship and more. Registration is free. 

Again, I’m Kristy Bleizeffer, and you can join me next week, right here, for a recap of what’s important in the world of business education. Thanks for listening.

 

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