MBA Jobs and International Students in the US

How hard is it for international students at business schools in the US to find MBA jobs? More difficult than it is for domestic students, but not as impossible as it may sometimes seem.

At 13 schools, we found two where 100% of international students found MBA jobs within three months of graduation, a better track record than their domestic counterparts.

At the rest, the differences ranged from near-parity at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business (97% for international students vs. 99% for domestic) to an 11-point difference at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Pay, though, is a different story. Few schools report salaries for domestic and international students separately, but most report salaries for MBAs who take jobs in the US vs. those who take jobs overseas.

Differences in pay for MBA jobs inside and outside of the US

While those taking MBA jobs overseas at Stanford, Harvard, and Wharton earned the most, Tuck was the only school where MBAs taking international jobs out-earned those taking positions in the US.

Fourteen percent of Tuck grads took international jobs in 2014, earning an average base salary of US$118,284, in excess of US$3,200 more than those taking MBA jobs in the US.

At the rest, the differential ranged from as little as US$2,000 at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business to as much as US$49,649 at North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business.

Note: Figures shown for Michigan, Texas and North Carolina are based on the range of regional US salaries reported by those schools.

Many factors can explain these findings, including the number of international students seeking US and international jobs, the industries and countries international job-seekers are pursuing employment in, and exchange rates on foreign currency, among other things.

A big salary gap, like North Carolina’s, may not mean all hope is lost for international students. At the University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business, graduates taking MBA jobs overseas earn US$74,150, a lot less than US salaries, but that includes both domestic and international students. Overall, international students at McCombs—those taking both US and non-US jobs—average about US$20,000 more.