Every year, thousands of people make the choice to invest in themselves with a graduate business degree and realize its powerful professional, personal, and financial benefits.
Will you join them, or will you be left wondering how an MBA or business master’s could have transformed your life and career?
Depending on who you are and what your specific goals are, you may have a few questions:
- Why go to business school?
- Who goes to business school?
- Can a graduate business degree advance my career?
- Can business school help me change careers?
- How much more can I earn with a graduate business degree?
- And, most importantly: Is business school worth it?
Read on for insights on all these questions and more, based on all- new analysis of alumni and the perspectives of individual graduates.
On the numbers
Data and insights presented here are a product of the Research Department of the Graduate Management Admission CouncilTM (GMACTM), the premier provider of market intelligence for graduate management education.
What’s shared is derived from multiple GMAC Research sources, primarily new analysis of more than 10 years of data collected from prospective students mapped
to data collected from the same individuals following their business school experience. Comparing data collected at these separate points in time provides all-new insights on the value of a graduate business degree. For more, read The Value of a Graduate Management Education: From the Candidate’s Perspective, available at gmac.com.
Additional data on career outcomes and salaries are provided by the MBA Career Services & Employer Alliance (MBA CSEA), a professional association of business school career centers and employers.
Quick takeaways
Why go to business school?
Business school students decide to pursue their degrees for a variety of reasons—but a common thread is a desire to invest in themselves to accelerate and elevate their careers.
Business leaders aren’t born—they’re made and molded over the course of their professional journeys. For many
of today’s most innovative and influential leadership talent, a key step on their journey was to go to business school.
Whether you’re motivated to level up on your current career path, make a significant career change, or launch your career from the best possible position, investing in a graduate business degree offers tremendous value: it equips you with the in-demand skills, credibility, network support, and career opportunities necessary to have long-term success in an increasingly dynamic global economy.
The top three specific motivations business school candidates cite are to increase the job opportunities available to them (74%), increase their salary potential (72%), and develop their general business knowledge, skills, and abilities (71%). A majority of candidates are also motivated to accelerate their career path (67%), develop their leadership skills (62%), gain professional credibility or credentials (58%), and allow them to change career paths (51%).
Emerging from business school with a degree in hand —and more importantly, valuable experiences—allows graduates to go on to realize high levels of career satisfaction. Among alumni, most agree that their current job makes use of the skills they gained in business school, is related to their desired career path, has opportunity for upward mobility, and is work they find personally meaningful.
Quick takeaways
Who goes to business school?
There’s no one type of business school student. Classrooms are more diverse than ever before, and schools offer a wide array
of program options that can help you meet your individual goals and needs.
Leading business schools attract talented students from a diverse mix of academic, professional, and demographic backgrounds. Among applicants who took the GMATTM exam—the number one assessment in business school admissions—citizenship spans nearly 200 countries, and only about a quarter studied business as undergraduates.3 In US MBA programs, the percentage of Hispanic enrolled students doubled over the last 10 years, and the representation of Black and multiracial students are trending up as well.4
Leading business schools value diversity and build their classes with diversity in mind not only to make the pipeline of global business leadership more reflective of the societies it serves, but also to improve the overall learning experience of their programs.
All students, regardless of background, benefit from a classroom experience that exposes them to diverse perspectives, which stem from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences shared in class discussions. Through learning, working, and growing alongside a diverse cohort of classmates, MBA and business master’s students emerge from their programs more thoughtful, empathetic, and informed about the world around them, and will bring that experience to bear in the leadership positions they’ll occupy in the future.
Regardless of where you are in your career journey, business schools can offer you a program that’s well suited to your experience level. Schools offer a varied portfolio of program types, including pre-experience business master’s programs for students just starting their careers, full-time MBA programs for students with roughly three to nine years’ experience, and a mix of professional MBA programs offered in flexible schedules and delivery formats, typically targeted at experienced professionals.
Quick takeaways
Can a graduate business degree advance my career?
Most business school graduates see an immediate professional payoff for their degree, as well as sustained professional growth over time.
Business master’s and MBA graduates have widely applicable skillsets and are highly sought after by leading employers across industries. Every year, a wide pool of organizations competes to hire business school graduates for highly desirable leadership or leadership track roles.
According to MBA CSEA, 87 percent of last year’s full-time MBA graduates received job offers within three months of graduation. Most, in fact, had a job offer before graduating (73%).
Activities facilitated through business schools are the primary source of most graduates’ job acceptances. Overall, 68 percent of job acceptances by last year’s class came via school-facilitated activities, including converting an internship into a full-time job offer (26%), interviews secured through the school (15%), job postings on school career systems (9%), and activities supported by the school career center (6%).
Last year, GMAC’s annual survey of hiring professionals found that the majority of employers who recruited on business school campuses agreed that business school graduates tend to have a fast-track to upper-level positions in their organizations, and that leaders in their organizations tend to hold a graduate business degree.
Why so much confidence in business school graduates? The top reasons recruiters cited included that they are strategic thinkers, have strong communication skills, and have a versatile skill set. These skills—applicable to just about any business leadership role—are the hallmarks of a generalist graduate business education, proven over decades and continually updated to stay on top of the rapidly evolving business landscape.
Overall, 9 in 10 graduates agree that their graduate business education increased their employability (87%), and 7 in 10 agree their graduate business education provided them opportunities for quicker career advancement (68%). Of graduates who entered business school from entry-level roles, 3 in 4 advanced at least one career level within two years of graduating (75%).
Quick takeaways
Can business school help me change careers?
Upskilling with a graduate business degree can be an effective means of pivoting your career into a new field or role—or even a new country.
For most, long gone are the days where you’d land a job with a firm and stay put for the duration of your career. In fact, some researchers have said the average person should now expect to have as many as seven “careers” during their professional lifetime. Couple that with increasingly rapid shifts in the business landscape, the reality is that you can’t so much plan for the future as much as you can prepare for it.
Especially as we now come out of a global pandemic, people are increasingly reevaluating their careers and are eager to make a change for the better. In fact, about half of business school candidates say changing career paths is among their motivations for pursuing a degree (51%)—and around the same amount end up doing just that (50%).
Among the 38 percent of alumni who changed industries after graduating, the most common industries they pivoted into were products & services (21%), technology (20%), and finance (15%). Among the 37 percent of alumni who changed job functions, the most common roles they took on were consulting (30%), marketing (18%), and general management (18%).
Another common motivation among business school candidates is pivoting their career to a new country, like the United States, Canada, or countries in Western Europe.
A graduate business degree is an excellent means of international career mobility, enabling students to gain familiarity with the norms of a new country, gain work experience through internships, and earn a marketable degree that may qualify them for full-time employment there. In addition, the global diversity of leading business school classrooms prepares students to lead in international organizations. In fact, 70 percent of alumni agree that their graduate business education prepared them to work in culturally diverse organizations.
Quick takeaways
How much more can I earn with a graduate business degree?
The average business master’s or MBA graduate earns significantly more than they would without their degree—and sees substantially higher earnings over the course of their careers.
Among employers who recruit on business school campuses, the median starting salary offered to MBA graduates last year was US$115,000—notably higher than what the same employers planned to pay for direct-from- industry hires ($95,000). According to MBA CSEA, last year’s mean starting salary for MBA graduates was US$124,000, and according to the Executive MBA Council the average salary and bonus package of Executive MBA graduates was US$193,000.
Median salaries for business master’s graduate new hires— including US$85,000 for Master of Business Analytics, US$85,000 for Master of Finance, and US$75,000 for Master in Management—also came out ahead of median salaries for newly minted bachelor’s graduates (US$65,000).
It makes sense, then, that 70 percent of global employers agree that employees with a graduate business school education tend to earn more than others in their organizations. This is especially true in the consulting (81%), healthcare (74%), and products/services (72%) industries.
Across the entire sample of graduates from the last 10-plus years, the average percentage increase in salary was 42 percent. Nearly 8 in 10 alumni agree that their graduate business education increased their earning power (77%).
This is often referred to as the business school salary premium, and over the course of your career the difference between what you make with your graduate business degree versus what you would have made without it adds up to a life-changing amount. According to analysis from the 2021 Corporate Recruiters Survey Report, an MBA graduate can expect to earn US$3 million more than someone with only a bachelor’s degree.
Quick takeaways
Is business school worth it?
So, when all is said and done, do business school graduates feel their investment of time, energy, and money was worth it?
The data, and the personal stories of graduates, clearly demonstrate that MBA and business master’s degrees are a well-worn path to career advancement and leadership positions across industries, organization types, and continents.
Overall, 94 percent of alumni rate the value of their graduate business education to be good, excellent, or outstanding. What’s more, nearly 9 in 10 report that they’ve had a positive return on investment on their business school degree (87%).
Most telling of all, the vast majority of alumni say their graduate business education improved their lives professionally (84%), personally (72%), and financially (69%).
Whatever your specific business career goal or motivation, investing in the business school experience can help you achieve it. Whether you’re just starting your career or knocking on the door of the highest levels of management, the world’s leading business schools will have a program option that’s a strong fit for your goals, preferences, and level of experience.
How would a graduate business degree transform your life and career? There’s only one way to find out.