Getting an MBA after graduating from top undergrad

sakky
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:06:48 +0000

From what I remember about undergrad Wharton, only about 35% of their students go on for graduate degrees. I am a bit too lazy today to look it up.



I would argue that 35% is a quite large figure when you account for the fact that only a small minority of US college graduates nationwide will go on for graduate degrees.



FWIW, a lot has to do with your talent and good fortune. If you happen to be hired in IB at graduation and do well, there is a likelihood that they will promote you to associate level after 3 years. If you make it that far, chances are that you won’t need an MBA and your resume and recommendations will propel your career.



Yeah, well, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that, for the fact of the matter is, the vast majority of IB analysts won’t do well enough for that to happen.



That’s true, but those are salaries of people just one year out of graduation. Obviously most going for their MBAs have already worked for several years which is why the average starting salary for top MBA school grads is so high.



Then let me put it to you this way. Harvard MBA’s with less than one year of prior work experience nevertheless report starting salaries that are nearly double that of the Haas undergrads.

[MBA Statistics — Harvard Business School](http://www.hbs.edu/about/mba.html)

In fact, I would suspect that most Haas BS grads with many years of experience (but no MBA) would still draw a lower salary than even the Harvard MBA’s with less than one year of experience.



Btw, I was just using Haas because it was the first school that came to mind. I’m specifically looking at Wharton and Sloan.



So let’s look at Sloan. As can be seen on p. 19 of the following pdf, the salaries for the Sloan undergrads is basically the same as that of the Haas undergrads, and clearly nowhere near the salaries of the MBA’s.

http://web.mit.edu/career/www/infostats/graduation07.pdf

Now, granted, you might argue that Harvard Business School is a special case. But I would disagree, because I don’t think HBS is that much better than the other elite MBA programs, and hence, I would doubt that the salaries of elite MBA grads with minimal experience is going to be substantially different than that of HBS grads with minimal experience. Yet that clearly means is that, for whatever reason, employers do not view the Haas (or Sloan) undergrads as equivalent to MBA’s, for otherwise, they really would pay them the same. {Either that, or it means that those undergrads are just terrible negotiators when it comes to their salaries.}