Berkeley MBAs are not only making an impact in their careers, they’re also earning the third highest salaries among top business school graduates over a lifetime, according to new research.
A recent Poets & Quants article The MBA Premium: What MBAs Earn Over A Lifetime Will Shock You detailed what MBA grads can expect to earn mid-career and over an estimated lifetime.
P&Q commissioned PayScale to collect this data for the first time since 2014.
The compensation software maker surveyed online data for 2,390 graduates from the top 50 U.S. business schools. They estimated median pay and bonus over both a 20-year and 35-year period, essentially a lifetime of post-MBA earnings.
Harvard Business School MBAs topped the PayScale list with its graduates earning a median lifetime income of $8.5 million, followed by Stanford with $8.3 million, and Berkeley Haas with $8.25 million.
Early-career pay for Berkeley Haas grads was $137,000, with 20-year earnings growing to $3.67 million.
Comparatively, the lifetime median earning of a Top 50 MBA grad is $5.65 million. (Lifetime median pay for all graduates with bachelor’s degrees is $3.32 million.)
“It is clear from this new data that our grads are not only making an impact on the world and building powerful networks through Berkeley Haas, but they are also launching rewarding lifelong careers that carry a clear return on the investment made in their degrees,” said Berkeley Haas Dean Ann Harrison.
The PayScale estimates include base salary, cash bonuses, and profit-sharing in today’s dollars.
“The estimates show that the MBA degree–despite all the second-guessing over its value–is one of the surest paths to a lucrative career,” Poets & Quants Editor John Byrne wrote.
The PayScale research was also published in Forbes.