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Comparison

Full-time MBA Salary

Full-time programs enable the largest career pivots — and carry the largest total cost because of forgone salary.

Direct answer
Full-time MBAs tend to produce the largest step-change in salary — driven by the internship-to-offer cycle and a clean pivot into consulting, finance, or tech — but also the highest total cost, because you forgo roughly two years of income on top of tuition. GMAC reports that 2025 U.S. MBA starting salaries are expected to rise versus 2024; the ROI verdict hinges on how big and how certain your pivot is. Model it against your own target offer in the calculator rather than a single headline number.

Market context: GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey 2025 (directional finding verified from the official abstract; exact dollar figures pending primary-source verification). Accessed 2026-06-09.

Market contextNo dollar value — directional finding only

“U.S. MBA and business master's graduates are expected to receive larger nominal and real starting salaries in 2025 compared to 2024.”

More than 1,100 corporate recruiters and hiring managers. Survey fielded January to March of 2025.

Source: GMAC — Corporate Recruiters Survey 2025 ↗. Exact starting-salary figures are pending a direct read of the primary report and are not shown.

Opportunity cost dominates

For a full-time program, forgone salary often rivals or exceeds tuition. In the ROI calculator, keep the opportunity-cost factor at 1 and watch how it changes payback versus a part-time path.

When the pivot justifies it

The strongest full-time cases are clear industry switches into higher-paying fields, or meaningful scholarships that cut total cost. A vague “general advancement” goal rarely justifies two years of forgone income plus tuition.

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Every figure on SalaryMBA is source-labeled. See our methodology for how we source and gate data.