MBA internship statistics show strong outcomes at two leading business schools, with reported offer rates near 100% and substantial differences in pay by industry and function. Wharton’s Class of 2025 internship data also shows that financial services was the largest industry destination, while consulting and private equity, venture capital, and investor roles were prominent functional paths. Chicago Booth’s 2025 recruiting report adds a benchmark for first-year full-time MBA students.
Table of contents
- Participation and outcomes
- Where MBA interns accepted jobs
- Median monthly pay by industry
- Functions attracting MBA interns
- Median monthly pay by function
- Chicago Booth internship benchmarks
Participation and outcomes
Wharton’s 2024 Career Report reports results for the Class of 2025 internships. The report identified 774 MBA interns seeking employment, representing 89.6% of the internship class. It also recorded 72 students who were not seeking employment, or 8.3% of the internship class, and 19 students who did not respond to the survey, or 2.2% of the class.
Among the students seeking employment, 773 reported receiving job offers. That equals 99.9% of internship seekers. The report recorded 764 job acceptances, equal to 98.7% of internship seekers. These are reported outcomes for the Class of 2025 internships, rather than a general estimate for every MBA program or labor market.
The participation figures provide important context when reading the offer and acceptance rates. The denominator for the 99.9% offer figure is internship seekers, not the entire class. Likewise, the 98.7% acceptance figure measures the share of internship seekers reporting an acceptance. Students not seeking employment and nonrespondents are reported separately.
Where MBA interns accepted jobs
Financial services was the largest industry category among Wharton Class of 2025 MBA internship acceptances, accounting for 36.3%. Consulting represented 15.8%. Within the financial-services categories, investment banking and brokerage accounted for 11.5%, private equity, buyouts, and other accounted for 8.8%, investment management represented 6.4%, venture capital represented 5.9%, and hedge funds or other investments represented 1.4%.
The remaining reported industry shares show a broad spread across sectors:
- Health care: 6.4%.
- Technology: 4.2%.
- Consumer products: 2.4%.
- Manufacturing: 2.4%.
- Energy: 2.3%.
- Insurance and diversified services: 2.3%.
- FinTech: 2.3%.
- Media, entertainment, and sports: 2.1%.
- Legal and professional services: 1.8%.
These percentages describe the distribution of internship acceptances in the Wharton report. They should not be read as the percentage of all MBA students entering each industry, nor as a forecast of future recruiting demand. The categories also reflect the report’s own classification system, including separate categories for investment banking, investment management, private equity, venture capital, and other investment areas.
Median monthly pay by industry
Wharton reported median monthly base salaries by industry for Class of 2025 MBA internships. The highest reported industry median was $16,459 per month in legal and professional services. Consulting followed at $15,830, while investment banking and brokerage was $14,583. Hedge funds and other investments had a median of $13,542, and financial services overall had a median of $13,000.
| Industry | Median monthly base salary |
|---|---|
| Legal & Professional Services | $16,459 |
| Consulting | $15,830 |
| Investment Banking/Brokerage | $14,583 |
| Hedge Funds/Other Investments | $13,542 |
| Financial Services | $13,000 |
| Private Equity/Buyouts/Other | $12,000 |
| Energy | $10,000 |
| Technology | $9,534 |
| Insurance & Diversified Services | $9,013 |
| Health Care | $8,522 |
| FinTech | $8,319 |
| Consumer Products | $7,840 |
| Manufacturing | $6,543 |
| Venture Capital | $6,400 |
| Media, Entertainment & Sports | $5,807 |
The same 2024 Career Report lists a $12,000 median monthly base salary for private equity, buyouts, and other roles; $10,000 for energy; $9,534 for technology; $9,013 for insurance and diversified services; and $8,522 for health care. It reports $8,319 for FinTech, $7,840 for consumer products, $6,543 for manufacturing, $6,400 for venture capital, and $5,807 for media, entertainment, and sports.
These are medians, so they describe the middle reported salary within each category rather than a guaranteed offer. They are monthly base salaries, not total compensation. The figures also come from the Class of 2025 internship reporting period and should not be treated as current salary quotes for every employer.
Functions attracting MBA interns
The functional distribution differs from the industry distribution because one industry can contain several types of work. Among Wharton Class of 2025 MBA internship acceptances, consulting and strategy was the largest reported function at 27.6%. Private equity, venture capital, and investor roles represented 16.8%, followed by investment banking at 11.4%.
Product management accounted for 9.2% of acceptances. General, project management, and management development roles represented 8.9%, while business development represented 5.4%. Investment management and portfolio management accounted for 5.8%.
Smaller reported functional categories included operations, production management, and supply chain at 1.8%; corporate finance, including analysis and treasury, at 1.3%; and analytics and data science at 0.8%.
The functional percentages are acceptance shares for the same Wharton internship class. They are not employment projections, and they do not establish that one function is more valuable than another. A smaller share can reflect the school’s recruiting mix and reporting categories rather than the total number of opportunities available across the MBA market.
Median monthly pay by function
Wharton’s function-level figures show that pay varied within the broader industry groups. The highest reported median monthly base salary among the listed functions was $14,583 for investment banking. Business development also reached a median of $14,582, just one dollar below that figure. Investment management and portfolio management reported $12,500.
| Function | Median monthly base salary |
|---|---|
| Investment Banking | $14,583 |
| Business Development | $14,582 |
| Investment Management/Portfolio Management | $12,500 |
| Consulting/Strategy | $10,000 |
| Product Management | $9,706 |
| General/Project Management/Management Development | $9,500 |
| Operations/Production Management/Supply Chain | $7,500 |
| Analytics/Data Science | $7,106 |
The report lists a $10,000 median monthly base salary for consulting and strategy, $9,706 for product management, and $9,500 for general, project management, and management development. Operations, production management, and supply chain roles had a reported median of $7,500, while analytics and data science had a reported median of $7,106.
The function-level dataset does not provide a salary figure for every function listed in the distribution. For example, the supplied Wharton figures identify acceptance shares for corporate finance and private equity, venture capital, and investor roles, but do not give a corresponding median monthly base salary for those categories. That distinction matters: an acceptance percentage and a pay statistic answer different questions.
Chicago Booth internship benchmarks
Chicago Booth’s The ROI of a Booth MBA: Chicago Booth 2025 Full-Time MBA Employment Report reported that 100% of first-year full-time MBA students seeking an internship received an offer during its 2025 internship recruiting period. The report also gave a $12,000 monthly base salary for first-year full-time MBA interns.
The Chicago Booth report identified several recruiting and placement comparisons. Amazon hosted 60 Booth MBA interns, up from 22 in the prior comparison year. It also reported 104 students entering investment-banking internships, up from 63 in that prior comparison year. Technology placements represented 19.7% of the class, compared with 17.9% in the prior comparison year.
The prior-year comparisons are presented as reported by Chicago Booth; the earlier values are not independently verified here. They are useful for understanding the direction of the school’s reported recruiting changes, but they are not a complete time series for MBA internships generally.
Taken together, the Wharton and Chicago Booth figures point to three measurable features of these reports: very high internship offer rates among students seeking internships, strong representation from finance and consulting-related paths, and wide variation in median monthly base salary by industry and function. Because the schools use their own reporting populations, periods, and category definitions, the figures are best used as school-specific benchmarks rather than a single national MBA internship average.