Financial Times Global MBA Ranking provides a more diverse collection of Business Schools around the world, including that from US, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. For candidates, the post-MBA Salary is an integral data point for calculating return on investment.
Another important element of Post-MBA Salary calculation is the percentage increase in Salary. By looking at Post-MBA Salary in itself will give you very little information on the actual value of an MBA program in the short-term. Maybe the schools are selective and take in candidates with excellent work experience or academics that can fetch him/her a high salary even without an MBA. So analysing post-MBA Salary with percentage increase in salary is critical.
While evaluating the percentage increase, research about the geographical location of the post-MBA Jobs. If a Business School has a high percentage of international students, the percentage increase in salary can be deceiving. Evaluate the salary equivalent of your current job in US or European markets before calculating the salary increase. If you are a resident of US or Europe, the weighted salary will average out differences in salary across industry sectors.
Related: 156% Salary Increase - SDA Bocconi MBA
According to FT, weighted salary is the average salary of alumni today with adjustment of salary variations within industry sectors. These include data for current year or one or more preceding years, where available.
So don’t take all the Post-MBA Salary as the 2012 data. Schools might not reveal the data or the data are from the previous class (2 year ago if the program is a 2 Year MBA program) or 1 year back. A lot can change in two years. If you evaluate post-MBA Salary increase from 2008 to 2010 data, you will see schools showing incredible jumps in their post-MBA salary. It has partially to do with the value of an MBA but had more to do with market conditions.
Understanding the nuances of how these data are collected and the environment surrounding the survey is essential for ROI calculation.
Top 100 MBA Salary - Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2012
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.