Median salary
Also called median base salary · median starting salary
Base salary only: guaranteed annual pay, excluding bonuses, commissions, benefits, cars, memberships, and relocation, even when those look guaranteed. Convert hourly contracts with a typical local workweek. Do not cash-out perks. $0 (100% commission) salaries are left out of the average; unknown salaries are left out of both mean and median.
Median salary on a CSEA full-time MBA report is the middle base salary among seekers who accepted new work by three months and reported pay. It is not mean pay, not base-plus-bonus, and not College Scorecard median earnings. Edition VII requires mean, median, low, and high whenever the cell clears the confidentiality floor.
What goes into the middle number?
Base salary only: guaranteed annual pay, excluding bonuses, commissions, benefits, cars, memberships, and relocation, even when those look guaranteed. Convert hourly contracts with a typical local workweek. Do not cash-out perks. $0 (100% commission) salaries are left out of the average; unknown salaries are left out of both mean and median.
The cohort is graduates who accepted new employment by three months. Company-sponsored returners are not in Table 4.A. Offers that were declined do not enter. A start-up salary that is real and accepted does enter.
Yale SOM 2025: median base $175,000, 25th percentile $140,000, 75th $190,000, among students who reported pay (91.8% of accepted offers). The median sits under the consulting cap and above the technology median. That is why one headline number is a weak industry map.
Publish a function, industry, or region median only when the cell has at least three salary points and at least 1% of seekers (whichever is greater). Otherwise print I/D, N/A, or roll the people into Other. Schools may raise that floor to protect a small cell.
Median versus the numbers people confuse it with
| Number | What it is |
|---|---|
| CSEA median salary | Middle base, new jobs, 3-month acceptors who reported |
| CSEA mean salary | Arithmetic average of that same base list |
| Signing bonus median | Middle one-time start bonus, among people who reported a bonus |
| Scorecard median earnings | Tax-record pay of Title IV completers years later |
Example: nine reported bases: 95, 110, 120, 140, 175, 175, 190, 190, 192 (all $000s). Median = 175. Mean ≈ 154. One $95k nonprofit hire moved the mean 20 points and left the median still. That is the usual MBA shape: a consulting/IB cluster at the top and a long left tail.
Common errors
Calling the median “average starting total comp.” Comparing a CSEA median to a Scorecard five-year earnings cell. Including sponsors. Averaging in $0 commission jobs (Edition VII says leave them out). Publishing a two-person PE median. Converting euros at a student’s homemade rate instead of a school-run Financial Times rate on the cutoff date.
FAQ
Why do schools headline median instead of mean?
The middle resists the $95k public-interest hire and the $250k PE outlier. CSEA still requires both. If mean sits well below median, the left tail is doing work. If mean sits above, a few high offers are pulling. Read the pair, then the industry table.
Is the median first-year compensation?
No. First-year packages stack base, signing bonus, and sometimes a guaranteed year-end bonus. CSEA forbids publishing a “total compensation” sum in the required tables because it mixes a salary with a one-time check.
What if only 60% of acceptors reported pay?
Print the footnote. Full-time target is 80% of graduates who accepted by three months. A 60% cell can still show a median, but it is a volunteer sample. High earners and low earners skip surveys at different rates.
Does work authorization get its own median?
Table 4.A splits permanent, non-permanent, and not-reported. Tables 4.B–4.M (function, industry, region) do not split by visa. Do not invent a domestic-only industry median unless the school labeled an extra exhibit.
Related terms
Sources
- CSEA Standards for Reporting Full-time MBA Employment Statistics, Edition VII Table 4.A median of base only; $0 commission excluded; I/D if <3 or <1% of seekers; 80% salary target
- Yale SOM Employment Report 2025–26 Median base $175k; 91.8% of accepted offers reported salary; signing bonus shown separately
