Salaries for EMBAs Up

Salaries of EMBAs rose in 2010, while application volume inched up ever so slightly enough to say it remained about the same. A survey by the Executive M.B.A. Council found that “E.M.B.A. students' salaries jumped by 11.4 percent from $127,955 to $142,534, on average, from the time they entered an E.M.B.A. program until their graduation—this is up from the 9.4 percent hike reported in the 2009 survey,” according to U.S. News.

The salary spike can be explained in part, council head Michael Desiderio says, by looking at the drop in the number of EMBA students fully funded by their employers—35 percent in 2006 to 30 percent in 2010—which speaks to the reluctance to front money for employees that aren’t top performers. "Companies are being more selective with who they send, and as a result, there's a higher percentage of people who are going to come out of it doing well," says Desiderio.“

Though salaries are up, interest in EMBA programs is expected to drop this year, according to GMAC, which noted that 19 percent fewer GMAT test takers indicated a plan to apply to an EMBA program in 2010 than in the previous year.

[U.S. News]