Another top business school has reported record MBA base salaries for the class of 2022—Stanford Graduate School of Business, which Fortune ranks as having the No. 5 full-time MBA program in the U.S. Last year proved to be a banner year for many MBA grads. Many schools, including Stanford, reported that median base salaries jumped to $175,000, an approximately 9% increase over the class of 2021—and that figure doesn’t include performance or signing bonuses that many MBA grads earn.
“Our top three industries—tech, finance, and consulting—all experienced an increase in median base salaries, as did other important sectors for our students, like media/entertainment and health care,” Jamie Schein, assistant dean and director of the Career Management Center at Stanford GSB, tells Fortune. “The increases were across the board for Stanford GSB job seekers, reflecting the competition in 2022 for GSB talent.”
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Other top business schools reported similar trends, including increases in consulting and finance salaries. That’s because competition has extended beyond industry, meaning that Wall Street, consulting firms, and Big Tech are all competing for the same MBA candidates.
“The fiercest competition in the labor market is for ‘top talent,’ and consulting firms are competing for this top talent not just between themselves, but also more broadly versus Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and traditional corporate America,” Namaan Mian, chief operating officer of Management Consulted, previously told Fortune.
Top industries for Stanford MBA grads—and their paychecks
The top industries for Stanford MBA class of 2022 grads were consulting (15% of the class), finance (33%), health care (5%), media/entertainment (5%), and technology (30%). Grads who went into finance saw the highest median base salaries at $200,000, with many going into private equity and venture capital—two industries with notoriously high salaries.
“While some students going into finance have reported base salaries over $200,000 in past years, this is the first year that the mean and median salaries have surpassed $200,000,” Schein says. “Our data shows that venture capital, which moved up a percentage from 11% to 12% of job seekers, was the driver that moved the mean and median over $200,000.”
The class of 2022 was larger than previous classes, “so even a 0 or 1% move marks an increase in the number going into an industry,” she adds. Expected median performance bonuses for finance grads were $150,000 and signing bonuses were $50,000, meaning some Stanford grads made $400,000 in their first year out of the MBA program.
The next-most lucrative industry for Stanford MBA grads this year was consulting, which reported median base salaries of $190,000. Industry-wide, consulting salaries have been rising, particularly with the announcement from the top three consulting firms—McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., and Boston Consulting Group—that these companies will raise base salaries for MBA grads to at least $190,000.
Performance bonuses in consulting can amount to an additional $50,000 and signing bonuses are about $30,000, data from Management Consulted shows. As a result, immediately after graduating from an MBA program, these workers are landing $270,000 pay packages.
“We consider our value proposition as an important part of what it means to be—and stay—the best place to work,” Keith Bevans, a partner in Bain’s Chicago office, previously told Fortune. “Comp is one part of the value proposition.”
Almost one-third of students pursuing employment in Stanford GSB’s class of 2022 took a job in technology. These grads landed median base salaries of more than $163,000 with expected bonuses totaling almost $50,000.
Entrepreneurship at Stanford
In part due to its proximity to Silicon Valley and the school’s long-standing history of entrepreneurship, many Stanford MBA grads go on to start their own companies. In fact, 86 students—or 19% of Stanford’s class of 2022—decided to become entrepreneurs.
This year, Stanford also saw a record number of women start companies or join startups, pursuing industries like women’s health and search funds, Schein says. “Some students come to the GSB wishing to explore the possibility of starting their own business, and some students make the decision after they arrive.”
And because “entrepreneurship is in Stanford’s DNA,” MBA students can expect to find resources to pursue this career path, Schein says. “The depth of courses at the GSB and the broader university—including experiential courses, the wealth of experienced mentors and incubators, and the proximity to early-stage capital sources provide rich resources for GSB entrepreneurs.”
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