The top MBA programs in the US are a popular bet to advance your business career. We all hear that furthering your education is important, but how does going to college and getting your degree really pay off? Is it the experience? The fact that it broadens your horizons? Well, it might be all of these, but, most of all, a college degree is usually correlated with a higher paycheck.
We would like to present you with a list we have compiled of the top 20 MBA programs in the US, ranked to total gain for a period of 5 years since graduating. The figures used in the making of the countdown are taken from statistics issued earlier this year by Forbes Magazine.
Curious to see if your school has made it on the list? Let’s take a look at the countdown of the top MBA programs in the US.
No. 20: University of Iowa: Tippie College of Business (Iowa City, Iowa)
Total 5-year gain: $60.800
Years it takes to pay back: 3.4
Pre-MBA salary: $46.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $118.000
No. 19: Indiana University: Kelley School of Business (Bloomington, Indiana)
Total 5-year gain: $62.000
Years it takes to pay back: 3.4
Pre-MBA salary: $50.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $120.000
No. 18: Yale School of Management (New Haven, Connecticut)
Total 5-year gain: $62.100
Years it takes to pay back: 3.8
Pre-MBA salary: $54.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $144.000
No. 17: Brigham Young: Marriott School of Business (Provo, Utah)
Total 5-year gain: $64.100
Years it takes to pay back: 3.2
Pre-MBA salary: $50.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $109.000
No. 16: Carnegie Mellon: Tepper School of Business (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Total 5-year gain: $64.300
Years it takes to pay back: 3.7
Pre-MBA salary: $60.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $135.000
No. 15: University of Virginia: Darden School of Business (Charlottesville, Virginia)
Total 5-year gain: $64.700
Years it takes to pay back: 3.8
Pre-MBA salary: $67.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $158.000
No. 14: UC Berkeley: Haas School of Business (Berkeley, California)
Total 5-year gain: $65.400
Years it takes to pay back: 4
Pre-MBA salary: $71.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $175.000
No. 13: UCLA: Anderson School of Management (Los Angeles, California)
Total 5-year gain: $66.100
Years it takes to pay back: 3.8
Pre-MBA salary: $65.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $165.000
No. 12: MIT Sloan School of Management (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Total 5-year gain: $66.000
Years it takes to pay back: 4
Pre-MBA salary: $70.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $185.000
No. 11: University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler Business School (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)
Total 5-year gain: $67.100
Years it takes to pay back: 3.7
Pre-MBA salary: $60.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $141.000
No. 10: University of Michigan: Ross School of Business (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Total 5-year gain: $68.000
Years it takes to pay back: 3.7
Pre-MBA salary: $61.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $153.000
No. 9: Cornell University: Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management (Ithaca, New York)
Total 5-year gain: $68.100
Years it takes to pay back: 3.8
Pre-MBA salary: $59.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $155.000
No. 8: Duke University: Fuqua School of Business (Durham, North Carolina)
Total 5-year gain:
Years it takes to pay back:
Pre-MBA salary:
Post-MBA salary (2012):
No. 7: Columbia Business School (New York, New York)
Total 5-year gain: $70.200
Years it takes to pay back: 3.9
Pre-MBA salary: $74.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $192.000
No. 6: Dartmouth: Tuck School of Business (Hanover, New Hampshire)
Total 5-year gain: $71.000
Years it takes to pay back: 3.9
Pre-MBA salary: $72.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $189.000
No. 5: Northwestern University: Kellogg School of Management (Evanston, Illinois)
Total 5-year gain: $73.100
Years it takes to pay back: 3.8
Pre-MBA salary: $73.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $176.000
No. 4: University of Pennsylvania: Wharton School of Business (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Total 5-year gain: $74.400
Years it takes to pay back: 4.0
Pre-MBA salary: $80.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $205.000
No. 3: Harvard Business School (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Total 5-year gain: $79.600
Years it takes to pay back: 4.0
Pre-MBA salary: $80.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $205.000
No. 2: University of Chicago: Booth School of Business (Chicago, Illinois)
Total 5-year gain: $92.000
Years it takes to pay back: 3.7
Pre-MBA salary: $76.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $200.000
No. 1: Stanford Business School (Stanford, California)
Total 5-year gain: $99.700
Years it takes to pay back: 4.1
Pre-MBA salary: $80.000
Post-MBA salary (2012): $221.000
If you enjoyed our ranking of the top MBA programs in the country, check out our “Top 10 Universities in the World.”
