The Stern School of Business’ MBA program ranked No. 67 out 68 schools listed on the Bloomberg return on investment calculator, which measures salary growth in proportion to education costs a decade after graduation.
The ROI rate for Stern MBA graduates decreased to 7.4% in the 2024-25 term, compared to 10% back in 2023. This result parallels Bloomberg’s survey of nearly 10,000 alumni across the 68 U.S. business schools, which found an average drop in ROI from 13.3% to 12.3% over the past year.
Bloomberg’s calculations evaluated whether MBA programs will heighten students’ incomes 10 years down the line, compared to if they did not enroll. The report found that while pre-MBA salaries on average increased by 6.2%, post-MBA salaries only rose by 1.7%.
The cost to attend Stern is nearly double the average business school tuition — at $257,908 versus $131,303. However, Stern respondents also reported median expected post-grad salaries that were slightly higher than average — $192,290 versus $176,873. Stern’s 2024 MBA Employment Report stated that the median base salary for MBA graduates was $175,000.
The highest-ranked New York State institution is SUNY Buffalo at No. 2 with an 18.1% ROI. Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business ranked No. 23, while Columbia University was No. 53.
A Stern faculty member, who spoke to WSN anonymously out of concerns over jeopardizing their job, said the networking opportunities the business school offers are just as important to consider as the ROI.
“The whole network thing is really what is the reason why people do an MBA and why people come to Stern,” the faculty member said. “I don’t think that’s gonna change, even if a report from Bloomberg talks about ROI, or if we drop a little bit in rankings or go up a little bit in rankings, because it’s all kind of relative.”
The latest university rankings from U.S. News & World Report ranked NYU’s undergraduate business school at No. 5, and its MBA program tied at No. 6 with Harvard University. Financial Times ranked Stern No. 31 out of 100 schools.
A spokesperson for Stern did not respond to WSN’s request for comment.
Contact Chantal Mann at [email protected].
