More Nonsense About MBA Salaries

May 24, 2010 by  
Filed under Uncategorized

Business Week is adding suspicious fuel to the fire in the argument about the value of Business School.  Citing non-scientific, user-submitted salary data from Payscale is the first clue as to the dubious-ness of the massive salaries earned by MBAs from top business schools.  Second, even if the data were true, historical performance is no indicator of future success.  Just ask the MBAs from the Class of 2010.  Offers are way down and salaries are too.

In the last month, we’ve received feedback regarding  job offers and salaries from contacts at MBA programs at UTexas-Austin, Yale, Babson, and Georgetown.  While this is not scientific data either, we’ve heard the same thing from all:  few job offers and much lower than expected salaries.  From our UTexas-Austin contact, the report was that less than 25% received job offers, most of which were for those who concentrated in Finance.  From our contacts at Babson, Georgetown, and Yale, the report was similar.  Less than 33% of 2010 MBAs received offers, and almost all of them went to those who focused in finance. Further, many of the MBAs received offers at ~$50-75,000, which for many MBA grads was lower than pre-MBA salary.

Clearly, the top finance MBAs have and will continue to earn good money.  The MBA has been a lucrative option in years past for most, but the return on investment has been shrinking for the median for some time.  If you are considering an MBA program for the next several years, you should do significant research on the outcomes for recent grads.  Get some real data from recent grads, find out the length of time from graduation to job offer.  Find out the post-MBA vs. pre-MBA salary and position.  Be certain that your area of focus is seeing returns on an MBA in the marketplace.  Don’t make the mistake of assuming that all MBAs do as well as a selected few in finance.

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