In this in-depth analysis of the Chicago Booth MBA Salary and Placements outcome for the 2025 graduating class by industry, we cover: Consulting, Financial Services, Technology, Healthcare, and Law.
1. Consulting: The Stable Feeder Industry at Chicago Booth
2. Financial Services: Diverse Sub-Segments Represented
3. Technology: Stabilized at 14%
4. Healthcare: Small but stable, anchored in services and operations
5. Law: Compensating Underperforming Industries
1. Consulting: The Stable Feeder Industry at Chicago Booth
Consulting remained the single largest industry destination for Chicago Booth’s Class of 2025, absorbing 36.7% of total hires with a median base salary of $190,000, a median sign-on bonus of $30,000, and total compensation of $220,000.
Consulting: A Comeback Industry at Chicago Booth
Compared to the Class of 2024, where Consulting accounted for 33.8% of hires, this represents a 2.9-percentage-point increase, effectively reversing the mild pullback seen in 2024 after Consulting peaked at 38.6% in 2023.
Industry Trends Favoring Boothies
This rebound aligns closely with the Consulting market dynamics observed between Q3 2024 and Q2 2025. During this period, consulting demand did not return to broad, volume-driven growth; instead, it consolidated around AI implementation, operating-model redesign, cost transformation, post-merger integration, and supply-chain resilience.
North America, particularly the Midwest and Northeast, remained the strongest demand centres, benefitting Booth graduates given the school’s deep integration into Chicago-based and East Coast consulting pipelines.
Compensation in 2025: Steady But not peaking to the 2023 Levels
Compensation trends reinforce this interpretation. Consulting total compensation at Booth held steady at $220,000, only marginally below the $222,000 peak in 2023, indicating that firms preserved pay levels for high-impact hires even as they constrained overall headcount growth. The slight softening from the 2023 peak reflects reduced bonus variability.
Analytical Rigor and Data-Driven Execution: Valued in Consulting Firms
Booth’s sustained dominance in Consulting reflects structural alignment with firms increasingly valuing analytical rigor, economics-based decision frameworks, and data-driven execution, all of which remain core to Booth’s training model.
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2. Financial Services: Diverse Sub-Segments Represented
Financial Services collectively accounted for 31.6% of hires, with a median base salary of $175,000, a median sign-on bonus of $45,000, and total compensation of $220,000, placing Finance on near-equal compensation footing with Consulting but with materially different internal dynamics.
Finance: Growth in Hiring at Chicago Booth But Unevenly in Unexpected Niches
Compared to 2024, when Finance-related categories together accounted for just under 27%, the Class of 2025 reflects a clear re-expansion of finance hiring, though not evenly across all sub-sectors.
Booth didn’t return to pre-2022 exuberance. The increase in hiring reflects selective hiring, concentrated in capital-efficient, analytics-heavy, and risk-disciplined roles. Booth’s Finance outcomes should be broken down by sub-industry to understand the larger picture.
Diversified Financial Services: The fastest-growing finance sub-segment at Booth
Diversified Financial Services represented 9.0% of total hires, with median base pay of $175,000, a $40,000 sign-on bonus, and total compensation of $215,000. This continues the sharp upward trend already visible in 2024, when the category jumped to 11.4%, after hovering between 6–7% during 2021–2023.
The category’s strength reflects structural shifts across fintech infrastructure, corporate finance, asset servicing, payments, risk platforms, and financial analytics, all of which expanded during Q4 2024 and Q1 2025 as interest-rate volatility stabilised and institutions refocused on profitability over growth at any cost.
Employers increasingly sought MBAs capable of navigating capital allocation, regulatory complexity, and technology-enabled financial operations, which aligns strongly with Booth’s finance-economics foundation.
Alternative to Investment Banking and Private Equity
While compensation here sits slightly below Investment Banking and Private Equity, the stability of bonuses and hiring volume suggests this segment has become a durable middle ground between traditional banking hiring and private-market volatility.
Investment Banking / Brokerage: Stable compensation, Declining Representation
Investment Banking accounted for 8.3% of hires, with a median base salary of $175,000, a median sign-on bonus of $50,000, and total compensation of $225,000, the highest among all Booth industries in 2025.
2025: Contraction in Investment Banking Hiring
Compared to 9.4% in 2024, this represents a modest contraction of 1.1 percentage points, extending the gradual pullback from the 11.1% peak in 2023. This decline is best explained by market conditions. During Q3 2024 through Q2 2025, global M&A value recovered unevenly, with activity concentrated in fewer, larger, and more complex transactions. Banks prioritised experienced lateral hires and smaller analyst classes, reducing incremental MBA intake.
Compensation stability at $225,000 confirms that roles remained premium, but scarce.
Investment Management / Research: Not as Competitive as Peer Schools
Investment Management and Research roles accounted for 5.3% of hires, offering median base pay of $165,000, $40,000 in sign-on bonuses, and total compensation of $205,000.
Investment Management considered a lucrative niche struggled to attract the best offers for Boothies.
Between Q4 2024 and Q2 2025, asset managers increasingly adopted AI-driven research tools, systematic strategies, and risk-overlay models, reducing the need for large generalist analyst intakes. Booth graduates entering this space are therefore doing so into more technical, quantitatively anchored roles, which explains below market compensation and restrained hiring volumes.
Private Equity: Faced Pressure after a Bumper Hike Four Years Ago
Compensation data was incomplete as the school didn’t report bonus and total salary data, a warning that the news for PE hopefuls wasn’t positive in 2025.
Private Equity hired 5.3% of the class, a drop from 6.4% in 2025, well below the 9.1% high in 2023.
The trend is negative for PE in Booth.
This divergence, could be explained through the placements in Chicago, which was affected as the funds flowed through New York and San Francisco.
Booth’s PE outcomes suggest fewer seats, higher expectations, and favoring candidates with deep analytical and operational skill sets.
Venture Capital: Marginal volume amid a re-priced ecosystem
Venture Capital accounted for 1.5% of hires, with a median base salary of $130,000, reflecting continued contraction from pre-2022 levels. This is consistent with the venture environment during 2024–2025, when capital concentrated heavily in AI infrastructure and late-stage platform companies, sharply reducing entry-level hiring.
For Booth, VC remains a niche outcome, shaped more by prior experience and network effects than by on-campus networking.
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3. Technology: Stabilized at 14%
Technology roles represented 14.1% of hires, with a median base salary of $151,000, a $35,000 sign-on bonus, and total compensation of $186,000.
Compared to 14.8% in 2024 and 23% in 2021, technology hiring at Booth has stabilized at 14%.
Technology Reshaping Around AI-First Skill Set
The outcomes aligns with technology industry’s evolution from Q3 2024 to Q2 2025, when hiring focused narrowly on AI infrastructure, cloud platforms, semiconductor supply chains, and energy-linked compute capacity, while product, operations, and general management roles were rationalized.
Booth’s technology outcomes skew toward corporate, platform, and analytics-oriented roles. Consumer serving startups had to freeze hiring, which explains both the lower volume and the compression in base pay relative to consulting and finance.
4. Healthcare: Small but stable, anchored in services and operations
Healthcare accounted for 4.1% of hires, with a median base salary of $145,000, consistent with its historical range at Booth. This mirrors the sector’s broader 2024–2025 dynamics, where healthcare hiring focused on operational efficiency, provider systems, and payer analytics.
Healthcare remains a steady but secondary destination for Booth graduates.
5. Law: Compensating Underperforming Industries
Law accounted for 4.5% of hires, with a median base salary of $225,000, the highest base salary across all industries. This category largely reflects JD-MBA pathways and regulatory-heavy corporate roles. The industry is not a career pathway for traditional MBA graduates.
While small in volume, its compensation profile could offset the underperforming PE, VC, Technology and Investment Management placements.
Chicago Booth’s Class of 2025 industry outcomes reflect consolidation rather than transition. Consulting and Finance together accounted for nearly 68% of total hires, reinforcing Booth’s identity as a school aligned with capital allocation, analytical decision-making, and enterprise transformation. Tech stabilised at a lower equilibrium, private markets became more selective but better paid, and diversified financial services emerged as a structurally important growth segment.
Industry | Percent of Hires | Median Base Salary | Median Sign On Bonus | Total Salary |
| Consulting | 36.7% | $190,000 | $30,000 | $220,000 |
| Financial Services | 31.6% | $175,000 | $45,000 | $220,000 |
| Diversified Financial Services | 9% | $175,000 | $40,000 | $215,000 |
| Investment Banking/Brokerage | 8.3% | $175,000 | $50,000 | $225,000 |
| Investment Management/Research | 5.3% | $165,000 | $40,000 | $205,000 |
| Private Equity | 5.3% | $175,000 | NA | NA |
| Venture Capital | 1.5% | $130,000 | NA | NA |
| Technology | 14.1% | $151,000 | $35,000 | $186,000 |
| Healthcare | 4.1% | $145,000 | NA | NA |
| Law | 4.5% | $225,000 | NA | NA |
Final Verdict
The Good
1. Consulting representation above 35% while maintaining a $190,000 base salary
2. Diversified Financial Services attracted equal compensation as Investment Banking
3. Technology couldn't reach the $160,000 base salary benchmark, but the 14% consistent representation is impressive considering the hostile markets technology candidates are facing.
The Bad
1. PE representation is falling, and the incomplete data around bonus and total compensation affects trust in Booth's career goals in PE
2. Investment Management, traditionally one of the most compensated niche is receiving a much lower median salary at Booth
3. Venture Capital with a $130,000 median base salary is a reflection of how VC fundraising is at a 7-year low in Chicago
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