Paris La Défense, FR · 12 months
ESSEC MBA: cost, salary and payback
A class that is 100% international on the school's own count, and almost no other figure in the open.
Paid back after graduation in
3.9 years
Total cost $402,342 · 10-year NPV $312,208
| Tuition and fees, whole program | $186,016 |
| Living budget | $84,866 |
| Salary given up, 21 months | $157,500 |
| Summer internship earned | −$26,040 |
| Total cost | $402,342 |
| Salary after: median base salary | $185,000 |
| Signing bonus × share receiving it | $14,400 |
| 10-year net present value | $312,208 |
| Return on the cost (present values) | 79% |
US dollars at the ECB rate of the last update. Raises of 5% a year with the MBA and 3% without, discounted at 5%, before tax. How this is calculated.
Fees and budget read on the school site · employment: latest report (school standard) · Built by Radif Partners · Method
- Tuition and fees
- n/a
- Total cost, salary given up included
- n/a
- Salary
- not published
- Payback, reference person
- not computable
The ESSEC Global MBA runs 12 months, extendable to 16, across the Paris La Défense and Singapore campuses. We could not find its tuition on the school's own pages: the financing tab of the program page was empty when we read it and the brochure is behind a form. Figures quoted on third-party sites are not used here. The school publishes no living budget, and its employment report is released only through a lead form, so there is no graduate salary either. This page therefore shows no total cost for the reference person earning $90,000 and no payback, and our rankings leave ESSEC out. What we can work out is the salary given up: $90,000 for the 12 months and $120,000 on the longer track at the reference salary. What sets ESSEC apart in the data that is public is the class: 100% international, the highest share in our data, 55% women, an average age of 30.
A class built entirely from abroad
ESSEC describes its Global MBA class as 100% international, a share no other school in our data reaches, with 55% women and an average of 6 years of work experience. The school's own breakdown of origins puts Asia and Oceania well ahead of every other region, with Europe the smallest group. On those figures, every student in the class comes from outside France.
The program lists two campuses, Paris La Défense and Singapore. The pages we read do not say how the class divides between them, how many students take the longer track, or how large the class is, so we cannot tell how many follow each path. Each extra month on the longer track costs about $7,500 of pay at the reference salary.
The salary you give up while you study
Salary given up, net of the internship
$157,500
| Gross salary not earned | $157,500 |
| Per month away | $7,500 |
Pension contributions and raises you would have had are not counted here.
What is missing, and how to fill it in
A payback needs the full cost and the salary after the degree, and ESSEC publishes neither in the open. Its career landing page offers only two percentages from the last career survey, that most graduates changed sector and nearly all changed function, and an older version of the same page gave lower figures, which shows how much these headline shares move. Neither says anything about pay.
Before applying, ask the school in writing for the tuition for your intake with every mandatory fee, an estimate of living costs in Paris and in Singapore, and the employment report with the median base salary, the response rate and the share of the class seeking a job. Then type them into the calculator above. The school does list several scholarships, including an early-application award with a fixed amount, but no share of the class that receives one.
A fee or a salary in US dollars
In US dollars
$111,880
| 1 EUR | $1.119 |
ECB reference rate of October 13, 2026. Prices on the ground do not follow exchange rates one for one.
French schools with fuller data
INSEAD, HEC Paris and EDHEC publish their tuition, and some of them a graduate salary, so you can compute a cost for them today. The Europe ranking lists every school in our data that publishes enough to rank, and the MBA finder lets you filter by region and length.
Where ESSEC stands in our rankings
Not ranked: ESSEC does not publish a living budget for students or a graduate salary, which our ranking needs. Its cost is complete above.
Our fit score, reference person earning $90,000 before the MBA (method). Third-party rankings play no part in it. For reference, ESSEC was ranked 24 in the FT Global MBA 2026.
What the ESSEC MBA costs
| Item | EUR, and US dollars |
|---|---|
| Living budget | not published |
The ESSEC class
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| International students | 100% |
| Women | 55% |
| Average age | 30 |
| Average years of work experience | 6 |
Not published by ESSEC in the documents we read: a living budget for students; a graduate salary; the split of the class by industry; where graduates went to work; the split by job function. We leave these blank rather than fill them with an estimate.