Which roles do graduates from the world's top business schools pick up immediately after an MBA? How much do these roles pay? Which top business schools offer the highest median salaries? What kind of salary would the average Investment Banker from the Wharton School earn within one post-graduation? This employment report is an analysis of the careers and salaries that the MBA class of 2019 of HBS, Wharton, Stanford GSB, CBS and MIT's Sloan School of Management has picked up in their first year after an MBA.
Note - Business schools included in this report are among the top-10 business schools in the world. The data for INSEAD, CEIBS, and London Business School has not been included in this report because relevant comparable data points were not available in the official reports released by these institutes. These data points will be covered in detail in their respective b-school employment reports for the Class of 2019 and the Class of 2020.
MBA Batch Profile - Class of 2019 At Columbia, Harvard, Sloan, Stanford and Wharton
The following are the important employment figures for the Class of 2019 at Harvard Business School, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford GSB, Sloan School of Management at MIT, and Columbia Business School, and include the batch size, percentage of students seeking employment, and the percentage of students receiving job offers, amongst other important statistics. The table below also includes the batch-profile data for the MBA class of 2019.
Note - Percentage figures below are on a base of the total number of students in the batch.
Also read - Average/Median GMAT Scores For The Class of 2021 At The World's Top-30 Business Schools
Columbia, Stanford, Wharton MBA Grads Report Highest Median Base Salaries | MBA Employment Report, Class of 2019
The following are important salary figures for the top global business schools included in this report. The graph below includes salary statistics for the MBA Class of 2019 at Harvard Business School, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford GSB, Sloan School of Management at MIT, and Columbia Business School, and includes median base salaries and the highest median base salary by functional area.
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The Class of 2019 at the Wharton School, Stanford GSB and Columbia Business School have reported the highest median base salaries across all five business schools included in this employment report. These students have reported a median base salary of $150,000.
- Split by function, the highest median base salary has been offered to MBA graduates of the Wharton School who opted for Legal Services roles, with 1.8% of students seeking employment accepting offers for these roles and earning a median base salary of $190,000. Wharton MBA students opting for roles with PE firms reported earning a median base salary of $165,000 - the second highest median base salary reported for the MBA Class of 2019 at the institute.
- Harvard MBA graduates of the Class of 2019 reported the highest median base salary for Consulting roles, earning a median base salary of $165,000. HBS graduates opting for roles with VC/PE/LBO firms reported earning a median base salary of $160,000 - the second highest median base salary reported for the MBA Class of 2019 at the institute.
- Stanford GSB's Class of 2019 reported the highest median base salary as $205,000, offered for roles with VC firms. General Management/Rotational/Leadership roles offered the second highest median base salary, at $170,000.
- At MIT's Sloan School of Management, the Class of 2019 reported the highest median base salary as $160,000 for roles in Consulting/Strategic Planning. The batch also reported the second highest median base salary as $150,000, offered to those opting for investment banking roles.
- Columbia's MBA grads of the Class of 2019 reported the highest median base salary for roles with management consulting, investment banking, mergers & acquisitions, and PE/LBO firms. The class also reported the second highest median base salary as $145,000, offered to those opting for business development/product development roles.
The table below compares median base salaries for similar cohorts of functional areas across the top global business schools mentioned in this report.
Also read - The Cost of An MBA From The World's Top-25 Business Schools
Consulting, Finance Most Sought After For Top B-School Grads - MBA Employment Report, Class of 2019
The following graph illustrates the most sought-after functional roles at for MBA Class of 2019 at Harvard Business School, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford GSB, Sloan School of Management at MIT, and Columbia Business School, to bring out employment trends across top business schools in the world.
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For the Class of 2019 of business schools under the spotlight in this report, Consulting, Strategic Planning, Finance, Marketing, Business Development, Sales, and General Management roles have been the most sought-after roles. At all these institutes, more than half the batch has opted for roles in Finance and Consulting. However, this affinity towards the aforementioned roles is not uniform across these top five b-schools.
- The Class of 2019 at Columbia Business School have shown great interest in Finance roles, with 38% of the batch opting for Investment Banking, Investment Management, Corporate Finance etc. roles. To compare, only 16% of the batch at MIT Sloan has opted for Finance roles.
- HBS graduates have shown a higher affinity towards roles in Marketing, Sales and Business Development, with over a fifth of the batch opting for these roles. In comparison, only 7% of the batch at MIT Sloan and 8% of the batch at Wharton has decided to begin their careers in management in these roles.
- HBS grads have shown a significantly greater interest towards General Management roles when compared with other business schools in the same league, with 16% of the batch of 2019 at Harvard opting for these roles. In comparison, only 6% of the batch at Wharton and 7% of the batch at Sloan has picked up General Management/Leadership roles post-graduation.
Also read - Employment Report - Harvard Business School - 5 Year Analysis
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