For all the lip service paid toward the opportunities to network, learn the case method, and interact with great faculty, the main reason most people go to business school is for the big bump upward in salary and job title. Accordingly, those are some of the most important metrics in the Financial Times’ international business school rankings, released today.
The biggest salary for alumni three years out of school (weighted for variations in sectors) goes to Harvard, also the top ranked school overall. In this chart, the number next to each school represents its overall ranking:
When you look at the percentage increases in salary from the time of enrollment, Harvard doesn’t come out on top. Here there are a much higher proportion of non-US schools, perhaps indicating that students in programs outside the US have lower salaries to begin with:
When the FT ranked schools based on the changes in the size of the companies that alumni work for, and the graduates’ level of seniority, Stanford came in first, likely helped by the California school’s proximity to the red-hot technology industry. The next five are, in order, IIM Ahmedabad, Harvard, IE Business School, IIM Bangalore, and Esade.
Find the full rankings here.