High & Low Healthcare MBA Salaries At The Leading U.S. B-Schools

The big three industries for MBAs have long been set — a closed club. But in certain circumstances, MBAs who venture into other industries can secure salaries that rival their colleagues in consulting, finance, and tech.

So it is with healthcare management, which has been rising as a sector destination for MBAs for years, and saw a spike in interest as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. From supply chain to operations, B-schools have found themselves in an integral role in shaping, and reshaping, the complex — and to the average observer, often lumbering and cumbersome — healthcare system. For MBAs from the leading schools, that can mean a hefty starting salary.

A Poets&Quants analysis of 2022 salary data compiled by U.S. News for the magazine’s 2023 ranking of the top U.S. B-schools finds that high salaries for healthcare management positions secured by MBAs graduating from the leading B-schools typically land in the mid-$200K range, while average salaries are more often found in the mid-$150K range. And one school leads all others in both columns: Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2022, one Stanford healthcare MBA reported a salary of $260K, besting the top salaries reported at two other M7 schools, Chicago Booth School of Business and Harvard Business School; while Stanford’s average healthcare MBA salary is nearly $200K — and more than $40K more than the nearest rival, HBS.

THE HIGHEST HEALTHCARE SALARIES AT THE TOP 25 U.S. MBA PROGRAMS

P&Q Rank	School	High Healthcare Pay	Average Healthcare Pay	Number Reporting Healthcare Pay
3	Stanford GSB	$260,000	$198,350	NA
2	Chicago (Booth)	$250,000	$146,833	22
5	Harvard Business School	$225,000	$157,500	25
10	UC-Berkeley (Haas)	$200,000	$151,292	12
11	Michigan (Ross)	$197,000	$147,111	18

Source: U.S. News & World Report

HUGE DROPOFF FOR COLUMBIA IN AVERAGE HEALTHCARE MBA SALARY

At $198,350, Stanford’s average healthcare salary (reported in 2022 by an unknown number of grads) far outpaces the next closest school, HBS, which reported an average of $157,500 for 25 MBAs. (Stanford was also the top school in 2021 with an average of $162,900.) In all, seven schools reported averages above $140K, and 16 schools reported averages below $130K. The lowest average, surprisingly, was at Columbia Business School, at $114,333 for 19 MBAs, though Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management was close behind at $114,571. Columbia saw its average decline 18.7% in one year, one of four schools with year-over-year declines.

To show the difference between 2021 and 2022, the low average for the former was at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, at $108,940; five other schools were below $120K that year, while four were below that threshold in 2022.

Columbia also had the distinction of reporting the lowest low salary in 2o22: $55K. Emory Goizueta Business School in Atlanta was close behind at $56K. Stanford had the highest low salary at $148,500. The school with the lowest high salary was Indiana Kelley School of Business ($130K), while the school with the highest high, as mentioned, was Stanford ($260K).

As it was last year, Duke Fuqua School of Business — situated on one corner of the famous healthcare Research Triangle in North Carolina — had the most MBAs reporting healthcare salaries, at 38, up from 32. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School was next at 29; seven other schools had 20 or more. George Tech Scheller College of Business and Rice Jones Graduate School of Business had the fewest, at one apiece.

THE LOWEST HEALTHCARE SALARIES AT THE TOP 25 U.S. MBA PROGRAMS

P&Q Rank	School	Low Healthcare Pay	Average Healthcare Pay	Number Reporting Healthcare Pay
7	Columbia Business School	$55,000	$114,333	19
21	Emory (Goizueta)	$56,000	$121,750	NA
13	Cornell (Johnson)	$60,000	$114,571	NA
27T	Vanderbilt (Owen)	$80,000	$125,868	19
12	Duke (Fuqua)	$80,408	$131,038	38

Source: U.S. News & World Report

COMPARING HEALTHCARE SALARIES WITH THE TOP MBA INDUSTRIES 

Stanford has plenty to boast about already when it comes to its healthcare management MBAs, but here’s one more thing: The school saw the biggest year-over-year salary increase, too. Stanford’s healthcare MBAs saw their average salary grow $35,450 in one year, or 21.8%, to $198,350. The GSB was one of nine schools in the top 30 that reported double-digit percentage gains; see table below for details.

But how do healthcare salaries match up to the Big Three industries of consulting, finance, and tech? To get an idea, P&Q compared the data on low, high, and average salaries from the top five schools, Stanford, Booth, Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg. We found that healthcare compares very favorably — to a point. See the data below.

In terms of low salaries, healthcare is winning by a wide margin. Even the HC average of all 25 top schools works out to be higher than the average of the low consuming, finance, and tech salaries at the top five schools:

• Top 5 consulting low average: $88,104
• Top 5 finance low average: $96,000
• Top 5 tech low average: $88,000
• Top 5 HC low average: $112,803
• Top 10 HC low average: $109,565
• Top 25 HC low average: $104,861

In averages of the average salaries, things start to turn against healthcare in a purely fiscal sense. Consulting and finance can’t be touched; but healthcare salaries and tech salaries at the top five schools are close, with tech just scraping by.

• Top 5 consulting average average: $175,211
• Top 5 finance average average: $182,408
• Top 5 tech average average: $159,713
• Top 5 HC average average: $158,277
• Top 10 HC average average: $147,213
• Top 25 HC average average: $135,112

Interestingly, in high salaries, the average for healthcare MBAs at the top five schools eclipses the average for consulting MBAs — this year. This is a notoriously volatile data point, however, so not much should be made of it. Note, too, that both finance and tech’s high averages crush the high average of the top five, top 10, or top 25 in healthcare.

• Top 5 consulting high average: $208,400
• Top 5 finance high average: $462,000
• Top 5 tech high average: $285,600
• Top 5 HC high average: $220,000
• Top 10 HC high average: $199,500
• Top 25 HC high average: $169,840

AVERAGE HEALTHCARE SALARIES AT THE TOP 25 U.S. MBA PROGRAMS

2023 P&Q Rank	School	Average Healthcare Pay – 2022	Average Healthcare Pay – 2023	YOY Change
1	Penn (Wharton)	$136,553	$154,397	$17,844 (13.1%)
2	Chicago Booth	$129,429	$146,833	$17,404 (13.4%)
3	Stanford GSB	$162,900	$198,350	$35,450 (21.8%)
4	Northwestern (Kellogg)	$126,486	$134,305	$7,819 (6.2%)
5	Harvard	$143,155	$157,500	$14,345 (10%)
6	MIT (Sloan)	$148,160	$150,750	$2,590 (1.7%)
7	Columbia	$140,600	$114,333	-$26,267 (18.7%)
8	Yale SOM	$116,800	$131,463	$14,663 (12.6%)
9	Dartmouth (Tuck)	$123,250	$132,909	$9,659 (7.8%)
10	UC-Berkeley (Haas)	$142,485	$151,292	$8,807 (6.2%)
11	Michigan (Ross)	$128,879	$147,111	$18,232 (14.1%)
12	Duke (Fuqua)	$132,236	$131,038	-$1,198 (0.9%)
13	Cornell (Johnson)	$121,639	$114,571	-$7,068 (5.8%)
14	Virginia (Darden)	$123,222	$126,356	$3,134 (2.5%)
15	NYU (Stern)	NA	$128,808	NA
16	UCLA (Anderson)	$126,130	$127,182	$1,052 (0.8%)
17	USC (Marshall)	$122,600	$126,143	$3,543 (2.9%)
18	Texas (McCombs)	$125,000	$128,333	$3,333 (2.7%)
19	UNC (Kenan-Flagler)	$108,940	$123,759	$14,819 (13.6%)
20	Washington (Foster)	$117,982	$117,800	-$182 (0.2%)
21	Emory (Goizueta)	NA	$121,750	NA
22	Indiana (Kelley)	$119,545	$126,000	$6,455 (5.4%)
23	Washington (Olin)	NA	$125,500	NA
24	Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	$124,500	$129,250	$4,750 (3.8%)
25	Georgetown (McDonough)	$112,145	$132,063	$19,918 (17.8%)
27	Vanderbilt (Owen)	$116,111	$125,868	$9,757 (8.4%)

Source: U.S. News & World Report

U.S. HEALTHCARE MUST ‘CREATE & CAPTURE VALUE’

As P&Q has reported, the top business schools in the U.S. are global leaders in healthcare programming. Noteworthy among the elites:

• The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania offers an MBA with a Health Care Management (HCM) major, a program that is designed to bring together students from nearly every sector of healthcare—from pharmaceuticals to venture capital.
  And students are showing high interest in B-schools’ healthcare programs. According to Fortuna Admissions, a top MBA admissions coaching firm, more than 15% of clients applying to Wharton cite the B-school’s HCM program as a significant factor in their decision to choose the school.
• At the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the new joint MBA/MS Biomedical Sciences (BMS) program offers students the opportunity to combine business expertise with foundational knowledge in biomedicine. Candidates take 14 Booth-only courses and LEAD, an experiential leadership development course, as well as six MS-only courses over the span of the two-year program.
• At Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, a new Healthcare at Kellogg (HCAK) Deep Dive Program combines rigorous academic discussion and case study with high-level practitioners in the industry. The new healthcare MBA pathway builds upon the B-school’s signature management training with specialized healthcare courses. It’s the longest-running healthcare business program in the country, says Craig Garthwaite, professor of strategy and Kellogg’s director of healthcare.

“Given the immense need for innovation in both healthcare and biomedicine to advance human health, having skilled professionals who are well versed in the vernacular of biomedicine and healthcare as well as poised to lead change is critical for the future,” says Vineet Arora, MD, Herbert T. Abelson professor of medicine and dean for medical education at the University of Chicago, and founding director of the BMS program.

Adds Kellogg’s Garthwaite: “The United States is not a national public health program. We are acknowledging the fact that, whatever people think, the U.S. healthcare market is dominated by private firms, and they need to create and capture value. That requires taking the tools we teach in our regular strategy and finance classes, and all the things you need to run a business, and combining it with the unique nature of healthcare.”

HIGH & LOW HEALTHCARE SALARIES AT THE TOP U.S. MBA PROGRAMS

2023 P&Q Rank	School	Low Healthcare Pay	Average Healthcare Pay	High Healthcare Pay	Number Reporting Healthcare Pay
1	Pennsylvania (Wharton)	$103,517	$154,397	$180,000	29
2	Chicago (Booth)	$112,000	$146,833	$250,000	22
3	Stanford GSB	$148,500	$198,350	$260,000	NA
4	Northwestern (Kellogg)	$100,000	$134,305	$185,000	19
5	Harvard Business School	$100,000	$157,500	$225,000	25
6	MIT (Sloan)	$130,000	$150,750	$190,000	23
7	Columbia Business School	$55,000	$114,333	$180,000	19
8	Yale SOM	$116,631	$131,463	$140,000	NA
9	Dartmouth (Tuck)	$118,000	$132,909	$185,000	23
10	UC-Berkeley (Haas)	$112,000	$151,292	$200,000	12
11	Michigan (Ross)	$121,000	$147,111	$197,000	18
12	Duke (Fuqua)	$80,408	$131,038	$175,000	38
13	Cornell (Johnson)	$60,000	$114,571	$145,000	NA
14	Virginia (Darden)	$112,000	$126,356	$140,000	12
15	New York (Stern)	$115,967	$128,808	$155,000	8
16	UCLA (Anderson)	$110,000	$127,182	$140,000	11
17	Southern California (Marshall)	$106,000	$126,143	$135,000	7
18	Texas-Austin (McCombs)	$115,000	$128,333	$135,000	3
19	North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	$97,500	$123,759	$150,000	27
20	Washington (Foster)	$94,000	$117,800	$140,000	6
21	Emory (Goizueta)	$56,000	$121,750	$150,000	NA
22	Indiana (Kelley)	$123,000	$126,000	$130,000	NA
23	Washington (Olin)	$120,000	$125,500	$132,000	4
24	Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	$105,000	$129,250	$172,000	8
25	Georgetown (McDonough)	$110,000	$132,063	$155,000	8
26	Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller)	NA	NA	NA	1
27T	Notre Dame (Mendoza)	$90,000	$117,000	$135,000	5
27T	Vanderbilt (Owen)	$80,000	$125,868	$150,000	19
29	Rice (Jones)	NA	NA	NA	1
30	Rochester (Simon)	$100,000	$123,500	$150,000	14

DON’T MISS B-SCHOOLS AT THE FOREFRONT OF HEALTHCARE and P&Q’S 2022 STORY ON HEALTHCARE MBA SALARIES