For the Class of 2016, the median Base Salary was $135,000 with a quarter of the class earning a median salary of $118,000 and the remaining 75% earning $147,000. Financial Services overtook Consulting by $5,000 to attract the best pay package of $150,000 median base salary. MBAs joining non-profit cited the lowest pay at a median base salary of $110,000.
When you compare the job functions – consulting leads at $140,000 while Venture Capital/Private Equity takes the second position with $131,875 median base salary.
The best data point to measure the impact of a top MBA program is the salary by location. For Harvard MBAs, International location fetched only $8000 less than the salary earned in the United States – a factor that makes HBS MBA the most sought after program. For the HBS Class of 2016, the majority (23%) found job opportunities in New York City, followed by California Bay Area (15%) and Boston (14%).
Reference: Harvard MBA Employment Report
About the Author
I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.
For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.
My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.
I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.
The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.
Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.