Wharton MBA Salary: By Industry (2025) (Analysis)

In this in-depth analysis of the Wharton MBA Salary and Placements for the 2025 graduating class by industry, we cover Financial Services, Investment Banking, Private Equity, Investment Management, Consulting, Healthcare, Technology, Retail, and Law.

Trend 1: Financial Services: Close to 40% of Wharton MBAs Entered the Industry

Trend 2: Investment Banking: Strongest Financial Services Niche at Wharton

Trend 3: Close 2nd in Wharton’s Financial Services Offer: Private Equity

Trend 4: Investment Management: 5.3% at Wharton

Trend 5: Venture Capital: Lag End of a Downward Spiral

Trend 6: Consulting - Wharton MBAs Weathered The Shift from Strategy to Management Consulting Roles

Trend 7: Technology - Capital Expenditure Surge Without Broad Wharton MBA Hiring

Trend 8: Healthcare - Defensive Capital and Platform Consolidation affected Wharton MBA Hiring

Trend 9: Legal & Professional Services: Scarcity-Driven Compensation

Trend 10: Retail - Structural Pressure in a Low-Margin Industry

Trend 1: Financial Services: Close to 40% of Wharton MBAs Entered the Industry

Financial Services accounted for 38.2% of Wharton MBA hires in 2025, maintaining its position as the school’s dominant employment destination and marginally strengthening its share compared to the Class of 2024. 

This stability at the aggregate level, however, masks sharp internal rebalancing across investment banking, private equity, investment management, and venture capital, driven by how capital markets evolved between Q3 2024 and Q2 2025.

Trend 2: Investment Banking: Strongest Financial Services Niche at Wharton

Investment banking remained the volume anchor within financial services, supported by a deal-value–led recovery rather than a deal-count rebound. In Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, U.S. M&A deal value rose materially year-on-year, driven by fewer but significantly larger transactions, including sponsor-led carve-outs, continuation vehicles, and balance-sheet restructurings. 

Transactions such as the Walgreens Boots Alliance take-private (~$23.7 billion) and a renewed wave of sponsor exits through strategic sales reinforced demand for execution-heavy banking teams. Importantly, this activity was geographically concentrated in the U.S. Northeast corridor, where Wharton has historically placed a large share of its finance-bound graduates. 

As a result, investment banking hiring held firm with 14.2% of the total offers, but base salaries remained flat at $175,000, reflecting that banks were expanding deal teams selectively.

Trend 3: Close 2nd in Wharton’s Financial Services Offer: Private Equity

Private equity hiring, which forms a substantial share of Wharton’s finance outcomes (13.4% of total offers), was 2nd.

Between Q3 2024 and Q2 2025, global PE deal value recovered strongly, culminating in record deployment by mid-2025, yet fundraising fell for a third consecutive year, and exits remained uneven. This created a structural contradiction: firms had capital to deploy but faced rising pressure from LPs on DPI and operational value creation. 

Consequently, PE firms hired fewer MBAs per fund, but paid more for those hires, particularly for roles tied to portfolio operations, healthcare platforms, infrastructure, and AI-adjacent assets. This dynamic explains why PE-heavy outcomes at Wharton skewed toward higher median base salaries (around $200,000) without a proportional increase in hiring share.

Trend 4: Investment Management: 5.3% at Wharton

Investment management and venture capital together represented a smaller but strategically important slice of Wharton’s finance outcomes. Asset managers continued to face fee compression and passive outflows, but Q1–Q2 2025 saw renewed interest in active strategies around AI adoption, private credit, and sector-specialist funds, particularly in healthcare and energy transition. 

Trend 5: Venture Capital: Lag End of a Downward Spiral

Venture capital hiring remained constrained at 2.8% of all offers, as more than 70% of new VC capital in this period flowed into a narrow set of late-stage AI and infrastructure platforms, limiting the need for broad MBA intake. 

Wharton’s finance outcomes reflect a finance market that hired at scale only where execution was immediate, and paid a premium where judgment and operational impact were scarce.

Trend 6: Consulting: Wharton MBAs Weathered The Shift from Strategy to Management Consulting Roles

Consulting hired 28.2% of Wharton MBAs in 2025, a marginal decline from the 2023 peak but broadly stable relative to 2024. This plateau aligns closely with how the consulting market evolved during the period, particularly in North America.

Wharton MBA Strategy Consulting Offers: Remained Competitive

Between Q3 2024 and Q2 2025, consulting demand did not weaken; it changed shape. 

Large enterprises sharply reduced tolerance for open-ended strategy work and instead prioritised AI implementation, operating-model redesign, supply-chain resilience, and post-merger integration, especially following the rebound in the U.S. 

M&A Traction in Late 2024 and Strategy Offers

Consulting firms reported that AI-associated and technology-enabled mandates grew at double-digit rates, while traditional strategy pipelines flattened. This shift favoured firms with scale and delivery depth, sustaining hiring at top programs like Wharton but limiting expansion beyond replacement and conversion hiring.

$190,000: Consulting offers in Top Schools like Wharton & $175,000 for Top 15

The $190,000 median base salary remained unchanged, reflecting that consulting firms faced productivity gains from internal AI tools that reduced the need for incremental headcount. Consulting remained a core destination, but its hiring intensity was capped by efficiency improvements, which constrained client demand for headcounts.

Trend 7: Technology - Capital Expenditure Surge Without Broad Wharton MBA Hiring

Technology accounted for 15.3% of hires, marking a continuation of the gradual recovery from the post-2022 contraction but remaining well below the early decade’s highs. This outcome reflects one of the most important disconnects of the 2024–2025 cycle: record technology investment alongside restrained MBA hiring.

Hyperscalers Prioritized AI Engineers Over Product Roles

During this period, hyperscalers and platform companies committed tens of billions of dollars to AI infrastructure, data centres, and semiconductor supply chains, driven by generative AI adoption and compute demand. However, this capital expenditure was infrastructure-heavy and labor-light. 

Firms continued to automate middle-management and coordination roles, while hiring MBAs selectively into strategy, operations, and commercial roles tied directly to monetization and cost control. 

The result was stable hiring with no salary improvement, as reflected in the $164,250 median base salary, signalling that technology firms valued precision over scale in MBA recruitment.

Trend 8: Healthcare - Defensive Capital and Platform Consolidation

Healthcare hiring stood at 3.8%, continuing a pattern of resilience. The period saw sustained private capital inflows into healthcare services, biopharma, and health IT, with healthcare representing one of the largest PE deployment categories globally. 

Healthcare Representation at Wharton: Below 5% 

Deals such as the Walgreens take-private and continued consolidation in provider services reinforced demand for MBAs in strategy, finance, and operations, but hiring volumes remained controlled due to integration complexity and regulatory scrutiny. 

Compensation held steady at a competitive $155,000, consistent with healthcare’s role as a defensive, execution-focused sector.

Trend 9: Legal & Professional Services: Scarcity-Driven Compensation

Legal and professional services employed 2.5% of the class, yet offered the highest median base salary at $235,000. The high pay and low representation reflect demand for highly specialized roles tied to complex transactions, regulatory change, and AI governance, particularly in financial services and technology. 

Hiring remained limited by design, but compensation reflected the scarcity of candidates capable of operating at the intersection of law, finance, and regulation.

Trend 10: Retail: Structural Pressure in a Low-Margin Industry

Retail accounted for 2.1% of hires. 

Persistent inflation, uneven consumer demand, low brand loyalty, and margin pressure limited strategic hiring, with MBA roles largely confined to targeted strategy and operations functions. 

The $162,500 median base salary is one of the highest among Top 15 schools and at par with offers in Harvard and Stanford, reflecting the different tier compensation HSW schools can attract even in an industry that is facing a hiring slowdown.

Reference

• Wharton MBA Employment Report