I've listed below the schools in the FT ranking, ranked by average salary of the incoming class. I've done this by taking the average salary, and the salary increase percentage. That's notable is that the top schools have higher salaries for the student coming in than other schools have for the graduating classes. That shows, amongth other things, the quality of the intake.

What's notable is that there a some schools with low average intake salaries that are in the top half of the FT business school ranking: NUS, CUHK; Purdue; ISB; SDA Bocconi; HKU and Manchester Business School. Those seem to be good programmes for talented students with lower salaries.

Rank in 2015 School name Intake salary
55 Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Antai $36,035
55 Fudan University School of Management $36,626
97 University of Pittsburgh: Katz $44,956
96 University of South Carolina: Moore $46,968
31 National University of Singapore Business School $47,261
86 University of Alberta $47,369
86 Queen's School of Business $49,671
30 CUHK Business School $49,868
66 University of San Diego School of Business Administration $50,189
63 University of Iowa: Tippie $50,810
48 Purdue University: Krannert $50,996
53 University of Toronto: Rotman $51,097
54 Michigan State University: Broad $51,672
69 Ohio State University: Fisher $52,183
86 Pennsylvania State University: Smeal $52,306
76 Arizona State University: Carey $53,243
40 Nanyang Business School $53,450
50 Lancaster University Management School $53,546
100 McGill University: Desautels $53,599
85 University of Rochester: Simon $53,624
65 Georgia Institute of Technology: Scheller $54,566
43 University of California at Irvine: Merage $54,715
33 Indian School of Business $54,781
80 University of Strathclyde Business School $54,911
97 Tias Business School $55,263
70 Wisconsin School of Business $55,338
76 SMU: Cox $55,426
78 Boston University School of Management $55,723
49 University of Maryland: Smith $56,033
62 Indiana University: Kelley $56,709
90 George Washington University $56,754
28 University of Hong Kong $56,901
81 University of British Columbia: Sauder $57,142
71 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign $57,332
93 University of California, San Diego: Rady $57,674
97 Western University: Ivey $57,732
34 Imperial College Business School $57,741
79 Durham University Business School $58,050
45 Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University $58,217
26 SDA Bocconi $58,502
94 Vlerick Business School $58,953
72 Washington University: Olin $59,257
51 University of Washington: Foster $60,064
90 Melbourne Business School $60,257
35 Manchester Business School $60,293
89 University of Notre Dame: Mendoza $60,308
43 Rice University: Jones $60,323
63 ESMT - European School of Management and Technology $60,498
11 Ceibs $60,528
55 Mannheim Business School $60,632
14 HKUST Business School $61,021
19 Esade Business School $61,354
73 Babson College: Olin $61,536
36 The Lisbon MBA $62,098
59 Sungkyunkwan University GSB $62,293
84 University of Bath School of Management $62,481
90 Boston College: Carroll $63,248
16 HEC Paris $63,502
95 Birmingham Business School $63,582
73 University College Dublin: Smurfit $63,996
83 University of Minnesota: Carlson $64,119
61 Vanderbilt University: Owen $64,328
39 University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler $65,252
7 Iese Business School $65,607
42 Georgetown University: McDonough $65,655
59 Emory University: Goizueta $66,248
67 University of St Gallen $66,387
36 Carnegie Mellon: Tepper $66,626
45 City University: Cass $67,876
58 University of Southern California: Marshall $68,555
75 AGSM at UNSW Business School $69,053
45 Cranfield School of Management $69,274
28 Cornell University: Johnson $70,092
32 University of Virginia: Darden $70,649
40 University of Texas at Austin: McCombs $70,904
24 University of Michigan: Ross $73,177
22 University of Oxford: Saïd $73,373
38 Warwick Business School $73,547
25 UCLA: Anderson $74,156
21 Duke University: Fuqua $74,637
12 IE Business School $74,650
68 Macquarie Graduate School of Management $74,835
13 University of Cambridge: Judge $75,992
82 Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore $76,879
18 New York University: Stern $77,211
2 London Business School $78,247
17 Yale School of Management $78,661
23 Dartmouth College: Tuck $79,328
8 MIT: Sloan $80,673
9 University of Chicago: Booth $81,873
6 Columbia Business School $82,161
52 University of Cape Town GSB $82,241
4 Insead $83,341
14 Northwestern University: Kellogg $83,999
10 University of California at Berkeley: Haas $84,318
20 IMD $87,146
26 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad $89,189
3 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton $90,286
1 Harvard Business School $91,791
4 Stanford Graduate School of Business $98,383

Really surprised by Krannert. It shows great salary increase for this tier of school, without relying too much on the higher salaries from management consulting grads. In fact, their most recent career stats show a great spread between placements in operations, marketing, and finance, along with decent salaries in most areas. Seems like a really well-rounded school.

26 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad $89,189

Thanks for this list. I was planning on applying for some of those top US schools in 2016, namely Wharton and Harvard... But my current salary is about half of the average starting salaries at these schools! (I don't work in a high-paying field...)

I doubt that I will double my current salary in a year, does this hurt my chances? I didn't even realize that they considered current salary as part of the MBA applications.

Wharton and Harvard are looking for the sort of students that their corporate partners want to hire. Successful applicants to those schools are already thriving, with demonstrable leadership and management experience. Maybe you are the right sort of person in a low-paying field, like a creative or NGO body. or perhaps you're in another country where salaries are not so high. But you're paid fairly because you're quite junior and making slow progress, then perhaps another school will be better for you.

Yes, I work in a nonprofit in Israel. It's a small organization so I'm not exactly junior but nor am I the executive director. I do manage some projects and have initiated a program, so hopefully this is the kind of experience that MBA programs are looking for, if not the salary... Thanks for your response.

Thanks for share this list..