What's an MBA Really Worth?: The class of '92 gives the degree high marks in our exclusive survey of B-school alums

What's an MBA really worth? In BusinessWeek's first-ever survey of MBA alumni, 1,500 alums of the Class of 1992 from the top 30 B-schools report high levels of satisfaction with their careers and say they owe much of that success to their MBA experience. This spring, BusinessWeek set out to assess the impact of an MBA on grads who have had more than 10 years to test-drive their skills. The survey, developed by BusinessWeek and Boston-based Cambria Consulting Inc., quantifies a mosaic of information, including averages, anecdotes, and interviews with dozens of survey respondents, B-school deans, corporate recruiters, and other experts. Rather than a ranking, the effort yields a portrait of the MBA's value as seen through the eyes of a group that graduated at a time when a business degree had just begun to be highly desirable. The data depicts a managerial class that's in a truly commanding position. Their salaries and bonuses are hefty, and they occupy, after only a decade, top posts in their companies. They are an enterprising lot, an entire cohort of ambitious men and women who have started hundreds of companies and created nearly 100,000 jobs. Today among the class are chief executive officers, vice-presidents, regional managers, and directors in nearly every corner of Corporate America.