Earning an MBA presents challenges on its own, only to begin a whole new—no less stressful— chapter upon graduating: paying for the degree. While taking a leap up the pay scale and in their careers, MBAs spend years paying back student loans, which ultimately keeps them from seeing much of an immediate boost as they pay back what they borrowed.
This year, the Economist graded full-time MBA programs by their abilities to boost a student’s income using two key data points: overall average salary (excluding bonuses) that MBAs receive when reentering the workforce, and the percentage increase in post-MBA salary compared with candidates’ pre-MBA income.
“But one school, placed second overall for its improvement in salary, stands out: Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business. Students there earn a smidgen over $100,000 when they enter the workforce after graduation—a pretty standard amount. But because of the demographic from which the school takes its MBA candidates, that is 238% increase on pre-MBA income,” the Economist stated in its recent article.
Broad’s MBA ranked highest on this measure of all business schools in the United States, outpunching top-five programs at Harvard Business School, University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. MSU’s 2016 graduating class reported a mean salary of $103,300 with a signing bonus of $18,469. More than 95 percent of graduates had accepted full-time offers within three months of graduation, and the MBA program ranked no. 1 in current job satisfaction according to Forbes.
An MBA is a long-term investment in a career, but should not incur long-term debt to it.
