One of the most common reasons for doing an MBA is that, for many people, it can lead to the next step in their careers. Sometimes, after working for a certain amount of time, people find that they’ve reached a certain level in their careers, and they need something else to get to management-level positions. An MBA can add specific business skills to your toolkit, such as leadership or strategic thinking, that will be good firepower when applying for management-level positions or promotions.

The bottom line is that a good MBA program can provide a measurable increase in salary. In fact, for most of the trustworthy MBA rankings, post-MBA “salary increase” is one of the main metrics for judging a school’s quality in relation to others.