The Best Age to Go to Business School

Business school is a profitable decision but less so as students approach their 30s. An analysis of data collected by Bloomberg suggests that getting a master’s in business results in a pay bump that increases the older a graduate is—until she hits 30.

As part of its ranking of full-time MBA programs, Bloomberg surveyed more than 10,000 people who expected to graduate business school in 2014. The ages and starting compensation for people who had jobs lined up when they graduated, plotted in the chart below, show that in one's mid-20s, paychecks bump up for every year of age, which makes some intuitive sense—a 28-year-old might have more experience and education than a 24-year-old. Surprisingly, though, age stops giving graduates a pay advantage fairly quickly. Pay levels hover in the mid-$120,000s range between ages 28 and 34, peaking at age 30, and then begin to drop off steadily, falling to $110,000 at ages 36 and 37.