<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I've always been under the impression(no backing from any credible source) that if you graduate from Wharton as undergrad you usually make 100k+ but after seeing the career plans survey report....my assumption has been proven false. For 2011, the average starting salary was around 66k. So my question is, is this the norm? Also, what about the salaries following the first few years? Does it increase dramatically?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>*Addition: how does year-end bonus factor in?</p>
<p>Salary is based on your job/where you work…not what school you went to.</p>
<p>If you and a state school kid get the same job you won’t get paid more than he will.</p>
<p>i downloaded the wharton 2011 graduating class career survey too. I was looking at Wharton male information (because I’m a male), and if you take into account average salary for a Wharton-only male, plus average year end bonus, plus signing bonus, it comes to an average of about 108k. Granted signing bonuses are just a one year thing, so that takes it down to 100k assuming ~30k year-end bonus, which was projected.</p>
<p>Don’t get hung up on average salaries. </p>
<p>Average Wharton salaries are brought up by the very high salaries at certain investment banks and consulting firms; average Wharton bonuses are brought up by the very high bonuses at the bulge bracket investment banks. Median salaries are slightly more telling, but again it is misleading to just add signing bonuses, salaries and performance bonuses, as they are all tied together but not directly.</p>
<p>First of all, Penn considers signing bonuses and relocation bonuses in the same bucket, primarily since most relocation bonuses are just signing bonuses earmarked for moving expenses that would need to be paid anyway. A very large signing bonus could simply be a bonus paid to someone for moving across the country.</p>
<p>To get a better sense for what you may get paid when you get out, keep in mind these factors:</p>
<ol>
<li>Your industry, more than anything else, determines your salary. Go into finance or consulting and you will be paid well; anything else will result in a lower salary.</li>
<li>The specific company you sign with is huge. If you look at individual industry salaries, you will see a massive range - management consulting is something like $35,000 to $95,000, with an average of around $58,000 and a median close to that. If you sign with a middle-tier generalist firm, you will get a lower salary than you would at a big 3 or at a boutique firm.</li>
<li>The location determines your cost of living and, therefore, your salary. You can live like a prince on $40,000 a year in a rural area in the Great Plains; if you stay in Philadelphia, that same $40,000 allows you to live with enough cash to pay your bills while still living downtown; $40,000 in New York means you can afford most of your expenses if you choose to live in Brooklyn or New Jersey. According to salary.com, if you get a $50,000 a year salary in Philadelphia, you would need to make $90,000 to maintain the same lifestyle in Manhattan and only $43,000 to maintain that lifestyle in Nevada. </li>
<li>Going to Wharton doesn’t guarantee you a job; it guarantees you ACCESS to a job. If you, like the vast majority of your classmates, elect to do on-campus recruiting (OCR), you will be in direct competition with your peers (big difference between competition WITH and competition AGAINST people… people help each other very often when applying for jobs, since you never know who you’ll run into later in life!). You will get access to hundreds of companies through PennLink, of which around 100 recruit through OCR. My point is that when you apply for a job, the company may have 10 interview slots available and receive 250 applications. If you are one of the 4% of applicants chosen for a first round interview, you will probably be one of four chosen for a second interview. And if you get a second round interview, you may be the only one chosen for the job; that means that it is entirely realistic to have a 0.4% chance of getting a job for that company. You need to have good grades and really have your stuff together.</li>
</ol>
<p>I don’t mean to make it seem like it’s impossible to get a job since that is obviously false, but I cannot stress enough that the Wharton name means NOTHING when you are competing against other Penn students, and it is by no means guaranteed that you will get a top job.</p>
<p>The advantage of Penn (I say Penn and not Wharton since this advantage applies to the entire university) is that Wharton attracts companies that other schools do not attract. Bain, BCG, McKinsey, Goldman, JPM, Citi, CS… all of these companies recruit at Penn, and dozens of people get jobs at these companies every year… the same cannot be said for most other universities. Having access, however, does not guarantee getting in.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, your average consulting company is going to pay a reasonable salary + 5-10% in your first year; your average bank is going to pay a slightly lower salary with a higher bonus. If you get a straight signing bonus not tied to relocation, you are probably getting that as up-front consideration for a lower salary.</p>
<p>Salaries in subsequent years are entirely based on the economy and your skill level/work ethic. Someone who comes in and just goes through the motions may get COL raises, so five years out, his $60k starting salary may have turned into $70k. Someone who comes in and crushes his job may get a promotion or two and get head hunted such that he turns his $60k starting salary into $160k. You control your own destiny, and I can assure you that the name Penn on your degree dictates next to nothing after you get your first paycheck.</p>
<p>At the recent info session, the admissions officer said students from the school of nursing make the most money coming out of Penn.</p>
<p>I graduated from Wharton and trust me, those career survey numbers don’t even come close to what most of my friends and I are making.</p>
<p>They’re not allowed to report bonus figures in the surveys because bonuses are not guaranteed, but even in a weak economy, a large part of investment banking/consulting salaries are from bonus. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind that starting salaries in finance are actually quite low compared to what you’d be making 4-5 years down the road. However, most of that money is once again from bonuses and would not appear in career surveys. (i.e. someone making $400k base in banking is probably clearing seven figures all-in)</p>
<p>The short answer to your question is, yes, lots of people make over 100k after graduation, but nobody makes over 100k base</p>