“Go West, Young Man” is a famous exhortation, whether it applies the 1840s Gold Rush or the 1980s middle class dream. And now ‘Go West’ can apply to MBA pay. Here, Stanford GSB tops all comers, posting a $181,455 average – a $17,000 improvement over 2021. While Harvard Business School grads experienced a nearly $21,500 base bump over the previous year out West, their $176,464 average lags behind the GSB. West Coast employers certainly pay well. There are 11 schools where MBA grads, on average, start at $150K or above. Even more, Harvard and Stanford reported individual grads making $350K out of business school (while a Wharton and Chicago Booth grad each started at $300K and $275K respectively). Unlike the Midwest and Southwest, the West Coast doesn’t take its local institutions for granted. In fact, MBA pay at West Coast schools rank higher than their overall ranking, including UC Berkeley’s Haas School (9th), USC’s Marshall School (10th), the University of Washington’s Foster School (12th), and UCLA’s Anderson School (14th).