Getting Paid: The Highest MBA Salaries in Atlanta
Looks like the secret’s out and ATliens’ extraterrestrial days might be numbered.
Atlanta has always been an intriguing mix of big business, civil rights history, and forward-thinking culture, but it seems the ATL is winning in 2017, thanks to a banner year in which its homegrown talent has captured the national imagination.
Much like Los Angeles, the Magic City doesn’t reveal itself upon a cursory glance. Atlanta is a city of neighborhoods, each with its own flavor—don’t let Cabbagetown’s name deter you. Despite MARTA’s excellent public transit, Atlanta’s anonymous suburban sprawl doesn’t lend itself to foot traffic. But with a population of 5.7 million and climbing, the Atlanta metro area’s Southern charm lures transplants by the day.
The relative anonymity of the city’s façade lends itself well to big thinkers who prefer a blank canvas of sorts. Iconic corporations like Turner Broadcasting and Coca-Cola have headquarters in Atlanta, but the city’s startup scene has grown exponentially in recent years—see: Mailchimp—due in no small part to the influence of Georgia Tech.
There’s a host of excellent business schools in the Atlanta metro area, which cater to a wide swath of interests and talents. Let’s take a closer look at three with the highest Atlanta MBA salaries.
Emory University’s Goizueta Business School
Graduates from the Emory Goizueta Business School MBA Class of 2016 class posted record employment numbers, with 95 percent of MBA students receiving job offers within three months of graduation. The most popular industries include consulting (54 percent), where Goizueta MBAs earned a median base salary of $135,000 and $25,000 signing bonus. Finance grads earn around $125,000 with a $40,000 signing bonus, while those employed in consumer products pulled in around $100,000 with a $25,000 signing bonus. Goizueta reported notable employers of its graduates, including: Amazon, AT&T , Bain & Company, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citigroup, The Coca-Cola Company, Cox Enterprises, Dell, Deloitte, Equifax, General Electric, General Mills, PepsiCo, Pizza Hut, Verizon, and Visa, among others.
Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business
Bloomberg BusinessWeek ranked the Scheller College of Business fourth overall in terms of job placement in the U.S., with the average starting salary for graduates at $108,088 with a $15,830 signing bonus. The top industries to employ Scheller graduates are within consulting (50 percent), tech (19 percent), and financial services (14 percent). Among the companies in Scheller’s corporate network are Amazon, AT&T, Bank of America, CNN, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Delta, Disney, Morgan Stanley, Porsche, Target, and Turner Broadcasting.
UGA’s Terry College of Business
Terry College of Business graduates from the class of 2016 earned an average starting salary of $91,217 with a $17,104 signing bonus, according to statistics released by the school. Around 93 percent of Terry MBAs accepted job offers within three months of graduation. The top five industries to employ Terry MBAs are in tech, financial services, consulting, consumer packaged goods, and healthcare.
About the Author
Jonathan Pfeffer
Jonathan Pfeffer joined the Clear Admit and MetroMBA teams in 2015 after spending several years as an arts/culture writer, editor, and radio producer. In addition to his role as contributing writer at MetroMBA and contributing editor at Clear Admit, he is co-founder and lead producer of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. He holds a BA in Film/Video, Ethnomusicology, and Media Studies from Oberlin College.
