Best 5 MBA programs for technology
The tech industry is heating up, and MBA grads are pursuing it in record numbers. Some schools, such as Stanford and Haas, have seen tech jobs quickly matching the finance sectors for most popular post-grad positions. Some speculate that the more laid-back culture typical of tech firms is luring grads away from the highest paying jobs, but no matter the reason, the trend is impossible to ignore. There are many factors to consider when choosing between potential MBA programs, but we’ve combed through our 250,000+ data points to pull out stats and facts that can help you choose.
Want to learn more about jobs in the tech industry? Check out our guides to the Software, Hardware, and eCommerce segments of the industry. We even have a guide to the Top 7 Tech Companies.
1. University of California, Berkeley – Haas
Composite Score: 100
U.S. News Rank: #7
Cost, 2 Years: $111,936
Total Compensation: $197,860
Average Starting Salary: $131,929
Average Hours/Week: 46
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $55
Average Travel Percent: 10%
Average Satisfaction: 7.4/10
Percent of Grads Entering Tech Industry: 38%
Top Employers: Adobe, Infoblox, Amazon
While about 17% of all MBA grads enter jobs in the tech industry, Haas more than doubles that number. As the percent of the graduating class entering tech inches closer to 50%, these graduates enjoy above average compensation packages too. UCB is also home to the Haas Tech Challenge, a tech-focused case competition that attracts MBA students from top programs across the country.
2. Stanford
Composite Score: 99
U.S. News Rank: #2
Cost, 2 Years: $128,100
Total Compensation: $221,063
Average Starting Salary: $134,375
Average Hours/Week: 40
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $65
Average Travel Percent: 5%
Average Satisfaction: 9.0/10
Percent of Grads Entering Tech Industry: 28%
Top Employers: Google, Facebook, Intuit
Stanford is only a stone’s throw away from Silicon Valley, so naturally the tech industry is a top choice among graduates. Just under 30% of the school’s MBA grads in 2015 entered the technology industry, which was only a few percentage points below the rate entering finance jobs. The director of the Career Management Center notes that “It’s not only tech companies that offer students an opportunity. It’s also traditional companies just leveraging technology”.
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Sloan
Composite Score: 93
U.S. News Rank: #5
Cost, 2 Years: $130,892
Total Compensation: $208,005
Average Starting Salary: $123,170
Average Hours/Week: 44
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $54
Average Travel Percent: 6%
Average Satisfaction: 7.5/10
Percent of Grads Entering Tech Industry: 31%
Top Employers: Amazon, Microsoft, Cisco
If you’ve considered Sloan for your MBA, you’re not alone. Applications for the program increased by 35% this year. Sloan is also near the top of the list when it comes to the percent of students entering tech each year. Average compensation packages are a bit above average, and graduates report good work-life balance as well.
4. Cornell University – Johnson
Composite Score: 84
U.S. News Rank: #14
Cost, 2 Years: $119,000
Total Compensation: $223,630
Average Starting Salary: $124,177
Average Hours/Week: 45
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $53
Average Travel Percent: 15%
Average Satisfaction: 10/10
Percent of Grads Entering Tech Industry: 16%
Top Employers: Intel, Microsoft, Amazon
If you’re set on tech, Cornell may be the school for you. In addition to a traditional 2-year MBA, the university offers a fast-track Johnson Cornell Tech MBA. Students in this program will spend their first semester in Ithaca taking their core business classes, and then finish the year-long program in NYC working on a cross-functional team project and taking a business idea from concept to launch.
5. Duke University – Fuqua
Composite Score: 79
U.S. News Rank: #12
Cost, 2 Years: $121,200
Total Compensation: $201,369
Average Starting Salary: $126,763
Average Hours/Week: 48
Equivalent Hourly Salary: $51
Average Travel Percent: 8%
Average Satisfaction: 7.5/10
Percent of Grads Entering Tech Industry: 20%
Top Employers: Amazon, Apple, Cisco
Typical starting compensation packages and work-life balance for Fuqua grads in tech is almost exactly average, but their above average percentage of students being hired into the industry landed them a spot on our list. MBA students at Duke can also participate in “TechTreks” during fall break, allowing them to visit companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Cisco while visiting west coast cities.
Other top scoring programs for tech:
University of North Carolina (76)
Northwestern University (76)
University of Southern California (76)
Notes on this analysis:
The Technology industry is defined as Technology-Software, Technology-Hardware, and Ecommerce/Internet. Industry is defined at the company level, so conglomerates operating in multiple industries will be categorized by their primary driver of revenue.
All data points are reported by MBA students and alumni for their first full-time job post-MBA.
Certain companies were excluded based on low sample size for jobs in Technology
A note on methodology:
These companies have been ranked on data from MBAs in areas such as compensation, average hours per week, and satisfaction. All data points are from MBA-related data, i.e. internships or full-time jobs obtained during or as a result of pursuing an MBA. We indexed the following metrics versus our all-company averages, with even weight distribution:
- Total compensation potential: includes salary, performance bonus potential, signing bonus, stock compensation, and miscellaneous compensation.
- Hourly wage equivalent: blended metric to capture base salary divided by hours worked per week on average for each company.
- Overall happiness: a user-reported metric based “overall happiness” with a particular job. The average across all data points hovers around 6.5/10.
- Percent of graduates entering the tech industry: the number of students entering jobs with tech companies for each program was compared to an all-program average.
Once indexed and compiled into a composite index, we scored on a 100-point scale. Programs with few data points were excluded from this analysis.
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