2023 MBA Pay: Consulting

Top-to-bottom, Consulting remains the most lucrative occupation for MBA graduates. In 2023, 26 business schools reported base salaries that averaged $160,000 or above. That doesn’t count another seven schools where bases ranged from $150K-$160K. Stanford GSB led all comes with an average of $186,110, edging out Chicago Booth ($183,309), Dartmouth Tuck ($182,190), and Virginia Darden ($181,454). Among the schools that outperformed their rank, you can point to Cornell Johnson, whose $178,049 average base topped the average pay for Harvard Business School, Northwestern Kellogg, Columbia Business School, and Yale SOM. Johnson consulting grads also boosted their pay by $13,256 from 2022 to 2023, one of the biggest surges among top programs that included UC Berkeley Haas (+$14,052), UCLA Anderson (+$12,578), and Vanderbilt Owen (+$23,589). While Stanford GSB producing a grad with the highest base – $322,000 – is no surprise, you could say a Michigan Ross grad collecting $300,000 to start definitely grabs people’s attention. The same could be said for a Georgia Tech Scheller grad earning $249,600 to start.