Stanford Reports Higher Pay for 2023 MBA Graduates

• 2023 master of business administration (MBA) graduates from the Stanford Graduate School of Business saw increased starting salaries compared to last year.
• 2023 Stanford MBA graduates who accepted full-time jobs by three months after their graduation had a median starting salary of $182,500 and a median signing bonus of $30,000.
• While pay increased, the number of students who received and accepted job offers year-over-year declined.
• Stanford officials said that is "a reflection of our students waiting for the right opportunity since students continue to receive and accept offers after the reporting deadline."

Another top school is reporting increased pay for its 2023 master of business administration (MBA) graduates.

Graduates of the Stanford Graduate School of Business MBA program saw starting salary bumps this year compared to previous years — even though job offers and acceptance rates three months after graduation declined compared to 2022.

The percentage of graduates seeking employment was 62% for the class of 2023, down from 67% in 2022. Another 25% pursued their own ventures in 2023, and 7% were already employed and sponsored by a company.

Of those 2023 graduates seeking employment, 89% had job offers by three months after their graduation, and 82% had accepted a job offer in that same time period. Those numbers are down compared to 2022, when 93% of graduates seeking employment had received a job offer by three months after their graduation, and 84% had accepted an offer in that same time period.

"This is partly due to the market, but it is also a reflection of our students waiting for the right opportunity since students continue to receive and accept offers after the reporting deadline," Gina Jorasch, interim assistant dean and director of the Career Management Center of the Stanford Graduate Business School, said in a press release.

Students who got job offers saw higher pay and signing bonuses. With a median pay of $182,500 and a median signing bonus of $30,000, along with a median expected performance bonus of $50,000, 2023 Stanford MBA graduates are seeing a significant return on investment.

Finance, technology, and consulting were the top industries where 2023 Stanford MBA graduates landed:

• 38% of students who accepted full-time job offers went into finance with a median salary of $200,000.
• 24% of students who got full-time offers went into technology with a median salary of $177,500.
• 15% of students who accepted full-time jobs went into consulting, with a median salary of $192,200.

Those are largely up from the class of 2022, when the median base salary for students who had accepted a full-time job by three months after graduation was $175,000.

Class of 2022 students who went into consulting had a median salary of $190,000; students who went into technology had a median salary of $163,750; and students who went into finance had the same median salary of $200,000.

Stanford joins other business schools in reporting MBA pay increases, with Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, and other schools reporting increased salaries for their 2023 graduates.