There’s been a post-COVID rebound in MBA hiring—and not only a rebound, but an increase in business school graduate salaries. In fact, Vanderbilt University, which Fortune ranks as having one of the best full-time MBA programs in the U.S., had a record year for its MBA class of 2022 grads, who landed average starting pay packages of more than $173,000.
“There was a lot of deal flow on the finance side, so the banks were scrambling for people, and the consulting firms were, as well,” Emily Anderson, senior director of Vanderbilt’s University’s Owen Graduate School of Management’s Career Management Center, tells Fortune. “They were competing for talent—and our students benefited from a really competitive employment environment.”
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Average base salaries were up by 12% year-over-year at $139,711 and signing bonuses surged 24% to $34,262. The median salary for Vanderbilt’s class of 2022 was $135,000 and the median signing bonus was $30,000, which evens out to a still-impressive $165,000 starting pay package immediately after graduation. On average, MBA graduates earn starting base salaries of $115,000, according to the Graduate Management Admissions Council.
Many projects that had gotten shelved during the COVID-19 pandemic were brought back this year and supply chains started opening up a little bit, which led to more demand for MBA graduates, Anderson says.
“Professional services, consulting and banking increased their salaries quite a bit, and that tends to drive student interest,” she adds. “There was a larger number of students that were interested in those career paths because the compensation outpaced corporate.”
Popular industries for Vanderbilt MBA grads
More than one-third of Vanderbilt’s MBA class of 2022 went into consulting, which is a popular career choice for MBA grads more boardly. The median base salary for 2022 Vanderbilt grads who went into consulting was $165,000. That’s slightly less than the reported median base salaries from top consulting firms, including Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co., and Bain & Co., which currently stands at $175,000.
This power group of consultancies announced this summer that base salaries at these firms will increase starting in 2023, to be in the range of $190,000 to $192,000.Consulting firms and other professional services companies are “all competing for what they consider top talent,” Anderson says. “Most of them increased their compensation packages.”
Financial services is another popular field for Vanderbilt MBA graduates, with 20% of the class landing a job in the industry. The median base salary for Vanderbilt MBA grads who went into financial services was $160,000, and three of the top seven hiring companies for the class were financial services firms: Ernst & Young (hired 7 graduates), PwC (hired 7 graduates), and Bank of America (hired 3 graduates).
Finally, 17% of Vanderbilt’s MBA class pursued technology jobs post-gradation. These alumni saw median base salaries of $130,000, and 12 of the 157 members of Vanderbilt’s 2022 class seeking employment last year were hired by one of the tech giants: Amazon.
How to earn an MBA from Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt’s full-time MBA program, which Fortune ranks as No. 21, has a 44% acceptance rate. That’s in line with or just slightly less competitive than the top 20 business schools in the U.S.
The school requires that prospective students submit a GMAT, GRE, or Executive Assessment score with an application to its full-time MBA program, but waivers are available. Incoming students on average have a 690 GMAT score and 3.32 undergraduate GPA. Prospective students must also submit one letter of recommendation to apply.
Vanderbilt’s MBA program costs $65,500 in tuition per year, but scholarships, fellowships, and loans are available to students. Many Vanderbilt MBA grads end up working in the surrounding Nashville area both for their internship after their first year as well as post-grad. In 2022, almost 25% of Vanderbilt grads looking for employment took jobs in Nashville post-grad.
See how the schools you’re considering fared in Fortune’s rankings of the best master’s degree programs in data science (in-person and online), nursing, computer science, cybersecurity, psychology, public health, and business analytics, as well as the doctorate in education programs and MBA programs (part-time, executive, full-time, and online).
