Baltimore’s Inner Harbor
Where do you live?
The question seems innocent enough. The answer can tell you so much. Fair or not, your location can reflect the values you carry, the passions you pursue, and the behaviors you exhibit. Just sidle up to someone in an airport lounge. Tell him you’re a Californian and they’ll probably imagine a vegan surfer busy launching a career in tech (or showbiz). Texas? How about a pistol-packing, truck-driving patriot who subscribes to the Holy Trinity: Jesus, Football, and Brisket? New Yorkers? Think a workaholic survivor who speaks fast and direct – and rarely holds back.
Yeah, they’re all clichés, out-of-step and easily debunked. Still, they represent a starting point in a world where authority, simplicity, and consistency are increasingly rare. The same is true when you pair a region with career prospects. The Midwest? You probably imagine wide cornfields surrounding rusting vestiges of better days. It is safe with a low cost of living…but often handcuffs how far you can go. The East Coast and West Coast? You have high pay, assorted industries, and deep networks. There are opportunities galore, which are balanced out by high costs and meager space – clatter, crowds, crime, and congestion.
Hence, choosing a location means MBAs must return to two fundamental questions: What matters most to me – and what tradeoffs am I willing to make?
Downtown Seattle
REGIONAL ADVANTAGES
In some cases, MBAs made this choice when they chose a graduate business program. Looking to enter consumer products? You enjoy an advantage in nearby firms and well-positioned alumni with Indiana University’s Kelley School and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School (among others). Committed to a career in tech? The University of Washington’s Foster School sits on the doorstep of Microsoft and Amazon. Want to make a career in energy? There of the four largest energy companies – ExxonMobil, Phillips66, and ConocoPhillips are headquartered in Texas. Not surprisingly, you’ll find a heavier concentration of energy-related coursework and clubs at programs like Rice University’s Jones Graduate School and the University of Texas McCombs School.
Bottom line: Location means access and expertise. Every top business school is a cog for some ecosystem that can facilitate the right partnerships, internships, and jobs. This proximity also sparks relationships, with some campuses being better able to draw the right people to visit classes, share best practices, open doors, and make themselves available for coffee chats and site visits. Call it the regional dividend, where connections act as currency and experience equals allure.
Alas, different regions pay different wages starting out. Historically, the East Coast produces the best compensation for MBA grads. Here, 2023 grads from 9 MBA programs averaged bases of $170,000 or more starting out. Compare that to the Midwest and South, which combined for 9 schools hitting the $170,000 or more mark. One reason: the East Coast is the bread basket of banking, home to Wall Street and players like JP Morgan Chase, Citi, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. Another reason: 6 of the 10 highest-ranked American MBA programs are found in the Northeast according to Poets&Quants,. While the highest starting base pay is often clustered among the higher-ranked programs, there are exceptions. On the West Coast, for example, one BYU Marriott grad snagged a $190,000 paycheck. That is higher than the average base for Stanford, Wharton, and Harvard grads in 2023. In other words, there is room for negotiation on the West Coast with some firms – and the Marriott grad was able to articulate his or her worth.
A SCHOOL-BY-SCHOOL COMPARISON BY REGION
Of course, regional pay involves hard numbers subject to context. For one, a larger MBA program, such as Harvard Business School, will naturally place more students in the Northeast than a mid-sized program like Vanderbilt University’s Owen School in Nashville. In this case, HBS placed ten times the number of grads in the Northeast (295 vs. 28). In other words, a high or low base for a handful of Owen grads would have an outsized impact on the school’s average. Regional pay averages also don’t reflect enticements like 401K, performance bonuses, stock options, profit sharing, and even tuition reimbursement. In addition, regional pay doesn’t factor cost of living differences. Take Boston and Columbus – the Northeast vs. the Midwest – at a $150,000 starting base. In Columbus, the cost of living is 58% less according to Forbes Advisor, including housing being 60% less – a $564,000 dividend right there.
In other words, regional pay is a starting point and a puzzle piece, a way to compare schools and locations to understand how the market views you and where you might find the biggest return. Wondering what the average pay, by region, is for the Top 50 MBA programs according to U.S. News? Want to know the highest and lowest starting bases by school and region? Click on the links below so you can compare the top MBA programs side-by-side.
Editor’s Note: These are the states that constitute each region.
Northeast: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont
Mid-Atlantic: District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia
South: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
Midwest: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin
Southwest: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
West: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
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