The rise in salaries and bonus for business graduations slowed considerably in 2024, according to school-submitted data for P&Q’s 2025 undergraduate ranking.
What a change a year makes. After two years of soaring first-year salaries and signing bonuses, Class of 2024 business graduates faced a much more sober job market, according to school-submitted data for the 2025 ranking of the Best Undergraduate Business Programs in the U.S.
In 2022, graduating business majors from top programs were riding high. Fierce talent competition through a particularly tight labor market caused first-year salaries to soar to double-digit percent increases at 47 of 93 schools in our 2023 ranking. Average salaries rose 10.8% across those 93 programs compared to the year before.
Outlook was not quite as rosy for 2023 business grad. Then, average salaries across the 91 school ranks for 2024 rose 10% or more at just 10 schools. Overall, salaries rose just 4.69% compared to the previous year.
The slowdown was even more pronounced for the latest graduates. Class of 2024 grads salaries rose just 1.61% across the 104 programs ranked for 2025, and just five schools reported double-digit salary growth over the previous hiring cycle.
B-SCHOOLS WITH THE HIGHEST UNDERGRAD SALARIES
Career outcomes is a major consideration in our proprietary ranking methodology, accounting for 33.3% of a school’s overall score. And first-year adjusted compensation makes up 30% of the career score.
Top salaries right after graduation is probably the most compelling argument in favor of a business degree, but not all schools are created equal.
The school with the highest salary of them all is hardly a surprise: Graduates of University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School (ranked No. 1 overall in 2025) consistently report first-year salaries that would make some MBAs blush. 2024 grads had an average starting salary of $109.479, up 2.1% from the $107,215 reported by 2023 grads. Wharton was, in fact, the first school to break the six-digit barrier in 2022 when grads reported an average salary of $100,655, an astounding 17.94% increase from 2021’s salary average of $85,345.
After Wharton, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business (No. 4 overall) posted the second highest average starting salary for the third straight year. Its Class of 2024 graduates averaged a starting salary of $100,732, a slight decrease from the Class of 2023 average of $100,859.
Rounding out the top five for highest salaries are New York University’s Stern School of Business (No. 5) at $99,119 (a 7.7% increase over the Class of 2023), Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management (No. 3) at $96,394 (a 1.7% decrease), and University of Michigan Ross School of Business (No. 11) at $94,418 (a very slight 0.13% increase).
Across 104 programs ranked in 2025, 11 reported average first-year salaries of $90,000 or more, as you can see below.
Highest Average Salaries At Ranked B-Schools |
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2025 Rank |
School |
2024 Salary |
2023 Salary |
% Change |
| 1 | University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | $109,479.00 | $107,215.00 | 2.11% |
| 2 | Cornell University (Dyson SC Johnson) | $96,394.00 | $98,066.00 | -1.70% |
| 3 | University of Southern California (Marshall) | $90,188.00 | $93,247.00 | -3.28% |
| 4 | Georgetown University (McDonough) | $100,732.94 | $100,859.15 | -0.13% |
| 5 | New York University (Stern) | $99,119.00 | $92,066.00 | 7.66% |
| 6 | Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) | $91,852.00 | $90,371.00 | 1.64% |
| 7 | University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) | $91,440.00 | $89,037.00 | 2.70% |
| 8 | Emory University (Goizueta) | $87,719.00 | $85,315.00 | 2.82% |
| 9 | University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) | $84,945.14 | $86,433.61 | -1.72% |
| 10 | Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) | $94,200.00 | $94,341.00 | -0.15% |
| 11 | University of Michigan (Ross) | $94,418.00 | $94,294.00 | 0.13% |
SALARY INCREASES SLOWING AT TOP SCHOOLS
Over the last three graduating classes, average starting salaries for Wharton graduates have gone up 26.6% – the highest increase across the top 15 schools in our 2025 ranking. But, most of the increase came in the previous two graduation classes.
We see the same trend among all the top 15. Together, 2022 grads at these schools had an average salary increase of 13.4% over the previous class. That increase fell to 6.2% for Class of 2023 grads. Still, all schools had average salaries rise in comparison to the class before.
For 2024 grads, average salaries rose less than 1% compared to Class of 2023 across all schools. Average salaries actually fell at 7 of the 15 schools.
That could signal a cooling in the business grad job market, a course correction from a couple of years of super high salaries, or a combination of the two.
Salary Changes At The 15 Top Ranked B-Schools |
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2025 Rank |
School |
% Change ’22 |
% Change ’23 |
% Change ’24 |
3-year change |
| 1 | University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 17.9% | 6.5% | 2.1% | 26.6% |
| 2 | Cornell University (Dyson SC John) | 11.4% | 10.3% | -1.7% | 20.0% |
| 3 | University of Southern California (Marshall) | 15.0% | 11.3% | -3.3% | 23.0% |
| 4 | Georgetown University (McDonough) | 13.7% | 4.1% | -0.1% | 17.7% |
| 5 | New York University (Stern) | 12.1% | 0.5% | 7.7% | 20.3% |
| 6 | Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) | 11.6% | 7.2% | 1.6% | 20.4% |
| 7 | University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 16.6% | 3.0% | 2.7% | 22.2% |
| 8 | Emory University (Goizueta) | 13.9% | 5.4% | 2.8% | 22.1% |
| 9 | University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) | 16.0% | 3.5% | -1.7% | 17.8% |
| 10 | Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) | 17.2% | 1.4% | -0.1% | 18.4% |
| 11 | University of Michigan (Ross) | 16.0% | 6.6% | 0.1% | 22.7% |
| 12 | Villanova University | 12.3% | 6.6% | 2.9% | 21.8% |
| 13 | Northeastern University (D’Amore-McKim) | 6.7% | 9.0% | 0.1% | 15.8% |
| 14 | University of Virginia (McIntire) | 11.8% | 7.0% | -1.4% | 17.3% |
| 15 | Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller) | 8.0% | 10.2% | -3.2% | 15.0% |
HIGHEST SALARY JUMPS
The slowdown in salary increases showed up across our ranking of U.S. business school programs. Average salaries actually dropped for 2024 graduates compared to 2023 at 36 of 104 ranked programs. It dropped at just seven schools out of 91 for 2023 grads.
There are notable exceptions.
According to school reported data, average salaries at Hofstra University’s Zarb School of Business (ranked No. 59 overall) jumped 35.4% over the previous year – from $64,108 to $86,827.
Trinity University Neidorff School of Business, which debuted on our ranking this year at No. 27, reported that average salaries rose from $66,040 for 2023 grads to $81,364 for 2024 grads, a 23.2% increase.
Eleven of 104 ranked programs saw salary increases of 7% or more over the previous cycle.
Biggest Salary Jumps At Ranked B-Schools |
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2025 Rank |
School |
2023 Salary |
2024 Salary |
% Change |
| 59 | Hofstra University (Zarb) | $64,108.00 | $86,827.00 | 35.44% |
| 27 | Trinity University (Neidorff) | $66,040.00 | $81,364.00 | 23.20% |
| 82 | Ithaca College | $49,139.00 | $56,834.00 | 15.66% |
| 77 | Seattle University (Albers) | $63,145.00 | $71,437.00 | 13.13% |
| 90 | University of Michigan-Dearborn | $53,333.00 | $60,333.00 | 13.13% |
| 101 | San Diego State University (Fowler) | $62,286.00 | $67,630.00 | 8.58% |
| 49 | University of Dayton | $61,430.00 | $66,689.00 | 8.56% |
| 61 | Florida Southern College (Barnett) | $54,501.00 | $59,074.00 | 8.39% |
| 5 | New York University (Stern) | $92,066.00 | $99,119.00 | 7.66% |
| 95 | University of Akron | $57,672.91 | $61,736.81 | 7.05% |
| 65 | Seton Hall University (Stillman) | $65,255.00 | $69,849.00 | 7.04% |
NEXT PAGE: Signing bonuses and total compensation
