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MBA Pay Through the Years
This interactive table shows 45 top-ranked full-time MBA programs—BusinessWeek's 30 Best B-Schools of 2008 plus 15 additional second-tier schools. For each school, the median cash compensation for MBA graduates is shown at five points in their careers: at graduation and after 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, and 20 years. An estimate of earnings over the entire 20-year period is also supplied. By clicking on any column header you can reorder the ranking to search for the schools that meet your criteria, such as those with the highest-paid grads five years after graduation, or the one school where grads' median pay exceeded $200,000 after 10 years. The choice is up to you.
Click column heading once to reorder from highest to lowest. Click twice to reorder from lowest to highest.| BusinessWeek Ranking  | Career Pay Rank  | Business School | Starting Pay ($) | 5 Years ($) | 10 Years ($) | 15 Years ($) | 20 Years ($) | Estimated Career Pay ($) |
| Chicago (Booth) | 110,000 | 116,000 | 137,000 | 167,000 | 171,000 | 2,939,060 | ||
| Harvard | 134,000 | 150,000 | 184,000 | 227,000 | 230,000 | 3,889,880 | ||
| Northwestern (Kellogg) | 117,000 | 118,000 | 140,000 | 177,000 | 186,000 | 3,078,850 | ||
| Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 145,000 | 142,000 | 161,000 | 196,000 | 205,000 | 3,541,110 | ||
| Michigan (Ross) | 109,000 | 105,000 | 116,000 | 135,000 | 140,000 | 2,525,280 | ||
| Stanford | 128,000 | 139,000 | 148,000 | 179,000 | 202,000 | 3,315,940 | ||
| Columbia | 118,000 | 135,000 | 167,000 | 186,000 | 193,000 | 3,368,440 | ||
| Duke (Fuqua) | 108,000 | 110,000 | 130,000 | 166,000 | 173,000 | 2,868,020 | ||
| MIT (Sloan) | 123,000 | 127,000 | 138,000 | 166,000 | 176,000 | 3,049,280 | ||
| UC-Berkeley (Haas) | 112,000 | 119,000 | 133,000 | 163,000 | 184,000 | 2,958,750 | ||
| Cornell (Johnson) | 104,000 | 102,000 | 140,000 | 168,000 | 170,000 | 2,865,130 | ||
| Dartmouth (Tuck) | 134,000 | 127,000 | 140,000 | 177,000 | 188,000 | 3,181,610 | ||
| NYU (Stern) | 107,000 | 112,000 | 136,000 | 171,000 | 170,000 | 2,920,840 | ||
| UCLA (Anderson) | 102,000 | 108,000 | 133,000 | 164,000 | 167,000 | 2,827,160 | ||
| Indiana (Kelley) | 79,600 | 84,400 | 100,000 | 121,000 | 134,000 | 2,164,500 | ||
| Virginia (Darden) | 113,000 | 112,000 | 138,000 | 162,000 | 170,000 | 2,905,130 | ||
| North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) | 93,600 | 98,800 | 124,000 | 150,000 | 162,000 | 2,626,050 | ||
| Southern Methodist (Cox) | 76,600 | 81,700 | 103,000 | 132,000 | 140,000 | 2,228,130 | ||
| Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) | 106,000 | 110,000 | 120,000 | 142,000 | 154,000 | 2,637,720 | ||
| Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 84,000 | 92,600 | 125,000 | 141,000 | 154,000 | 2,501,550 | ||
| Texas-Austin (McCombs) | 95,800 | 97,900 | 116,000 | 151,000 | 157,000 | 2,577,870 | ||
| Brigham Young (Marriott) | 79,700 | 86,700 | 97,700 | 124,000 | 141,000 | 2,199,960 | ||
| Emory (Goizueta) | 89,500 | 96,700 | 114,000 | 149,000 | 168,000 | 2,564,980 | ||
| Yale | 110,000 | 118,000 | 138,000 | 146,000 | 150,000 | 2,788,300 | ||
| USC (Marshall) | 88,200 | 95,300 | 113,000 | 141,000 | 148,000 | 2,451,060 | ||
| Maryland (Smith) | 79,600 | 90,000 | 106,000 | 140,000 | 142,000 | 2,339,450 | ||
| U. of Washington (Foster) | 77,500 | 93,200 | 106,000 | 120,000 | 125,000 | 2,200,910 | ||
| Washington University (Olin) | 78,400 | 86,000 | 104,000 | 123,000 | 139,000 | 2,213,490 | ||
| Georgia Tech | 70,800 | 82,500 | 100,000 | 137,000 | 149,000 | 2,249,780 | ||
| Vanderbilt (Owen) | 83,800 | 93,400 | 122,000 | 150,000 | 157,000 | 2,543,490 | ||
| Second Tier | Georgetown (McDonough) | 88,700 | 93,800 | 117,000 | 153,000 | 160,000 | 2,558,950 | |
| Second Tier | Thunderbird) | 75,300 | 87,500 | 112,000 | 140,000 | 142,000 | 2,343,740 | |
| Second Tier | Babson (Olin) | 85,300 | 91,400 | 120,000 | 139,000 | 150,000 | 2,453,170 | |
| Second Tier | UC-Irvine (Merage) | 77,600 | 86,400 | 115,000 | 137,000 | 140,000 | 2,339,590 | |
| Second Tier | Rochester (Simon) | 79,400 | 86,800 | 118,000 | 134,000 | 135,000 | 2,332,290 | |
| Second Tier | Minnestoa (Carlson) | 86,700 | 85,200 | 100,000 | 122,000 | 134,000 | 2,194,940 | |
| Second Tier | Connecticut | 65,000 | 78,600 | 102,000 | 126,000 | 130,000 | 2,112,450 | |
| Second Tier | Boston U. | 73,500 | 81,700 | 110,000 | 125,000 | 124,000 | 2,171,520 | |
| Second Tier | Michigan State (Broad) | 76,600 | 81,300 | 95,700 | 123,000 | 130,000 | 2,115,860 | |
| Second Tier | Purdue (Krannert) | 74,000 | 85,700 | 107,000 | 118,000 | 128,000 | 2,156,170 | |
| Second Tier | George Washington | 67,600 | 75,300 | 96,300 | 123,000 | 136,000 | 2,078,270 | |
| Second Tier | Ohio State (Fisher) | 71,100 | 79,800 | 104,000 | 127,000 | 139,000 | 2,179,070 | |
| Second Tier | Illinois-Urbana Champaign | 72,700 | 77,000 | 96,300 | 121,000 | 124,000 | 2,057,490 | |
| Second Tier | Arizona State (Carey) | 72,200 | 80,000 | 95,600 | 112,000 | 124,000 | 2,023,640 | |
| Second Tier | Iowa (Tippie) | 67,400 | 71,600 | 93,700 | 107,000 | 108,000 | 1,884,510 | |
Methodology Note: The salary data in this table were supplied by PayScale, which collects salary data from individuals through online pay comparison tools. For each school, PayScale tallied the median cash compensation—including base pay and bonuses, but excluding stock and options—for MBA graduates at five points in their careers. The data are based on a sample of 80,000 MBA graduates, including approximately 250 to 1,000 graduates for each of the schools in the table. BusinessWeek then used the salary data and average annual growth rates over each five-year span to calculate a very rough estimate of earnings over the entire 20-year period, labeled here as "Estimated Career Pay."
Data: PayScale
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