Once students evaluate their interest in a chosen field, they focus on the earning potential and job opportunities available with the degree. Michigan State University’s annual recruiting trends report(US) covers some interesting statistics on the average starting salary of candidates with degree programs, master’s program including MBA, and PHD program.
PHD in Engineering fetches the largest starting salary of $71,742, followed by PHD in Pharmacy and PHD in law. For Management students, an MBA on an average increases the starting salary by $12,000 per year, regardless of the reputation. Professionals with MBA take the fourth position with a starting salary of $56,726 followed by Business Professionals with a PHD.
Students with a master’s degree program earn 3% to 63% higher starting salary than their Bachelor’s degree counterparts, and PHD students earn 20 to 25% higher salary than their Master’s degree counterpart. The only exception that we have seen is for candidates with PHD in Business, who earns 4.7% lesser salary than an MBA.
Here is the complete list of Starting Salary Based on Degree Program including MBA
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.