The Highest-Paying Undergrad B-Schools

Georgetown University

GRADUATES FROM PRIVATE SCHOOLS EARN THE HIGHEST MID-CAREER INCOMES

In fact, you’ll find some big movers as graduates with only a bachelor’s in business stride into mid-career. Georgetown University grads, for example, see their incomes jump from $60,500 to $136,000 – second only to Berkeley grads. Illinois Wesleyan grads make a similar leap, from $51,000 to $128,000. Likewise, Santa Clara and Wharton grads progress steadily, with their mid-career incomes rising to $124,000 and $122,000 respectively.  Aside from these schools, you’ll also find graduates doubling their income between early and mid-career at programs like Seattle Pacific ($44,500 to $110,000), St. Mary’s of Texas ($45,000 to $111,000), American University ($47,000 to $112,000), the University of California-Irvine ($48,100 to $110,000), and Washington University of St. Louis ($53,100 to $122,000). Among Top 20 schools for mid-career pay, 13 had graduates whose pay (on average) doubled (with another four schools with graduates’ salaries climbing by 90% or more).

The top-paying undergraduate business programs are more geographically dispersed by mid-career. Although ten are based on the east coast – including newcomers like Loyola University (MD) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute  — you’ll also find five on the west coast, three in the Midwest and two in the south. That said, when it comes to high mid-career income, your best bet, as a business major, is to head to a private school. 17 of the 20 highest-paid grads attended such schools, with only the University of California-Berkeley, Georgia Tech, and the University of California-Irvine represented among the public schools. That’s half of the six public undergraduate schools (including Berkeley, University of Virginia, William & Mary, UCLA, North Carolina, and Illinois) whose undergraduate business programs produced graduates with the highest incomes early in their careers.

This salary data is derived from PayScale’s global salary survey, which collects compensation, demographic and educational backgrounds from professionals who visit the company’s website. It features salary data from 592 colleges and universities that offer undergraduate business majors. School response rates, which are a major factor in determining income, were not supplied by PayScale.

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(Go to next page to see what graduates from other top undergraduate business programs are earning)