The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
Students wondering whether business school is worth the time and money may be comforted by the results of a recent survey. When the Graduate Management Admission Council asked nearly 15,000 alumni if they were satisfied with their decision to go to business school, 92 percent said yes.
But the financial value of an MBA varies widely among full-time programs. In some instances, the average recent graduate’s student loan burden is larger than his or her starting salary. In contrast, at the 10 programs with the highest salary-to-debt ratio, the starting salaries of recent graduates are far greater than their debt.
[Here are four questions to ask business school alumni.]
MBA graduates of the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas–Dallas made the most money relative to their debt among the 87 ranked business schools that reported these data to U.S. News in an annual survey.
The average starting salary among MBA graduates of the program who were employed within three months of graduation was $86,644. That’s more than 12 times the average amount of student debt acquired by the school’s MBA recipients who borrowed: $7,132, excluding college debt.
The average salary-to-debt ratio among ranked business schools that reported these data to U.S. News was 1.986. But, at the 10 schools where salaries dwarfed debt the most, the average salary-to-debt ratio was 4.368.
Among the 10 schools with the highest salary-to-debt ratios, only one school had a six-figure average starting salary: the Foster School at the University of Washington. At this school, the average starting salary was $111,847, compared with an average debt burden of $32,047.
[Dive into job rates and starting salaries for MBA grads.]
Five of the 10 MBA programs with the highest salary-to-debt ratios are labeled as Rank Not Published. U.S. News has calculated a rank for each of these programs but has decided not to publish it, since the rank falls in the bottom quarter of ranked full-time MBA programs.
Below is a list of the 10 business schools where average starting salaries for full-time graduates in the class of 2016 were substantially larger than the average amount of MBA student debt among graduates who borrowed. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| Business school (name) (state) | Average MBA starting salary (2016) | Average MBA student debt (2016) | Salary-to-debt ratio | U.S. News b-school rank |
| University of Texas–Dallas | $86,644 | $7,132 | 12.148 | 38 (tie) |
| Missouri University of Science & Technology | $66,250 | $11,386 | 5.818 | RNP |
| Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge (Ourso) | $65,152 | $17,900 | 3.639 | 79 (tie) |
| University of Washington (Foster) | $111,847 | $32,047 | 3.490 | 27 (tie) |
| Mercer University–Atlanta (Stetson) (GA) | $57,500 | $17,172 | 3.348 | RNP |
| Oklahoma State University (Spears) | $60,910 | $18,728 | 3.252 | RNP |
| University of Missouri (Trulaske) | $64,252 | $20,495 | 3.135 | 69 (tie) |
| Temple University (Fox) (PA) | $85,278 | $27,770 | 3.071 | 32 (tie) |
| West Virginia University | $53,988 | $18,608 | 2.901 | RNP |
| SUNY–Oswego | $48,000 | $16,677 | 2.878 | RNP |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Business School Compass to find salary and debt data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 471 schools for our 2016 survey of business programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Business Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The salary and debt data above are correct as of April 25, 2017.
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10 MBA Programs Where New Grads Make More Than They Owe originally appeared on usnews.com
