Finance · figures from each school’s own report
Asset management after an MBA: research seats and portfolio roles
Oxford places 14.6% of its class in asset management, Stanford 8%; at most American schools the share is closer to one graduate in twenty.
Financial and investment analysts: U.S. median, May 2025
$102,740
$102,740 sits between the 25th percentile and the median
| 25th percentile | $79,290 |
| Median | $102,740 |
| 75th percentile | $133,340 |
| Workers counted | 361,980 |
All employers and levels together: a post-MBA consultant at a strategy firm is paid well above this median, as the school reports show. How this is calculated.
Built by Radif Partners · figures checked · Method · Editorial policy
Asset management, the industry of mutual funds, pension managers, hedge funds and endowments, hires MBA graduates mostly as investment analysts who research companies or sectors and recommend positions to portfolio managers. It takes a modest share of most classes: Stanford GSB reported 8% of its class of 2025 in the segment at a $212,500 median base, Columbia 6.8% and Wharton 5.3% at $175,000, Booth 5.3% at $165,000. Oxford, with a one-year program and a London-heavy class, puts 14.6% of its graduates in asset management but gives no salary for them. Across the whole United States economy, the BLS counted 361,980 financial and investment analysts in May 2025, at a median wage of $102,740 and a top quarter above $133,340. A post-MBA research seat at a large fund pays well above that median at the start, and the spread widens later with performance bonuses that no report records.
Research first, portfolio later
An asset manager invests other people's money, from pension funds and insurers to individual savers, in listed shares, bonds and other assets. The MBA graduate usually starts on the research side. An equity analyst covers a sector of perhaps twenty or thirty companies, builds a model of each, meets their management and writes the case for buying or selling. A credit analyst does the same for bonds. The portfolio manager takes the decision and answers for the fund's return. The step from one seat to the other is not a promotion by seniority: it follows a record of recommendations that made money, which can take years and does not happen for everyone.
Hedge funds, endowments and family offices hire through the same pattern, often in smaller numbers and outside the campus calendar. That is one reason asset management shares are modest even at the schools where finance dominates: a fund that adds one analyst a year may not post the job on campus at all.
| # | School | Share of class | Graduates, about | Salary | Payback | 10-year NPV | Fit score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stanford GSB | 8% | 35 | $212,500 | 3.2 years | $494,857 | 100 |
| 2 | Harvard | 7% | 66 | $183,000 | 4.1 years | $285,640 | 89 |
| 3 | Columbia | 6.8% | 67 | $175,000 | 4.5 years | $223,915 | 68 |
| 4 | Wharton | 5.3% | 47 | $175,000 | 4.3 years | $240,066 | 63 |
| 5 | Dartmouth Tuck | 5% | 15 | $175,000 | 4.3 years | $234,883 | 53 |
| 6 | Chicago Booth | 5.3% | 34 | $165,000 | 4.6 years | $188,272 | 45 |
| 7 | LBS | 6% | 29 | $116,653 | 8.9 years | -$116,499 | 33 |
| 8 | MIT Sloan | 4.5% | 19 | $165,000 | 4.7 years | $173,517 | 31 |
| 9 | Yale SOM | 3.7% | 14 | $140,000 | 6.7 years | -$18,397 | 18 |
| 10 | UCLA Anderson | 2.2% | 6 | $95,343 | 16.7 years | -$329,614 | 0 |
Where the industry table and the job table disagree
Schools count asset management twice, and the two counts measure different things. The industry segment counts graduates hired by investment firms, whatever their job; the function line counts graduates doing investment work, whoever employs them. Stanford's function table reports 9% in investment and portfolio management roles at $200,000, Wharton 6.2% at $175,000, Booth 5.8% in investment management and research at $165,000 and Columbia 4.8% at $150,000. Some schools publish only the function: McCombs reports 5% of its class in asset management roles at $150,000 and Georgetown 6% in investment management at $111,500, but neither gives an asset management industry line, so neither can enter our segment ranking.
Oxford shows the opposite gap. Its industry table counts 14.6% of the class in asset management, the highest share we read, but its report gives no salary for the segment, and the school-wide figure it publishes is an average, £81,466, not a median. Without a salary for the segment, Oxford is listed apart from the ranking, even though it sends more of its class to asset managers than any ranked school.
Chicago Booth: where the class went
Share of the class
36.7%
| Salary reported | $190,000 |
| Graduates, about | 233 |
| Payback with that salary | 3.5 years |
Reference person earning $90,000 before the MBA.
What the BLS says about investment analysts
The Bureau of Labor Statistics groups fund analysts with every other analyst who studies investments: at banks, insurers, pension plans and the finance departments of ordinary companies. In May 2025, that occupation counted 361,980 jobs with a median wage of $102,740, a bottom quarter under $79,290 and a top quarter above $133,340. Post-MBA research seats at large funds start above the top quarter, which tells you two things: the reports describe a narrow part of the occupation, and an analyst job found outside campus recruiting can pay much less. The calculator at the top of the page places any salary you type in that distribution.
Financial and investment analysts: where a salary sits in the U.S.
Position
below the median
| 25th percentile | $79,290 |
| Median | $102,740 |
| 75th percentile | $133,340 |
BLS, May 2025, all employers and levels.
Is the MBA the usual entry?
Less than in banking. Many analysts join funds straight from college or from sell-side research, so the degree is one entry among several. The MBA works best as a reset for someone coming from another field who needs the summer internship of a two-year program to get a first research seat, or for someone aiming at the client and product side of asset management, where general management skills count more. Compare the cost of that reset with the other finance paths, and check the school's function table before its industry table: in this segment, the job line is often the more informative of the two. The finance ranking gives the wider picture.