Investment banking graduates from top schools are particularly in demand. Bear Sterns is among the companies offering starting packages of up to $200,000 a year to brand-new MBAs with investment banking credentials, according to eFinancialCareers.

That figure may be the high end of the starting salary scale, but the lower end is not bad, either.

MBA graduates of certain elite business schools in the US and Europe may earn $100,000 or more, according to The Boston Globe. Overall, it said, salary and other financial compensation is expected to remain high for all top graduates.

Salaries for all MBA hires in 2004 averaged more than $82,000, or 9% more than the previous year, according to various reports.

But graduating from a top school often pays off much more than graduating from a mid-ranked one does. A 2004 study found, for example, that graduates of Northwestern Kellogg Graduate School of Management -- often cited as the nation's number one business school -- earned a median total pay package of $142,000. Graduates of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business earned only slightly less, $140,000. And Harvard Business School graduates did even better, with a median pay package of $160,000.

Earning an MBA from a prestigious school rather than a middle-ranked one is often worth it, concluded Ken Samuels in The Lantern, Ohio State University's student newspaper.

He compared how graduates of the prestigious University of Chicago and those of unranked Loyola University (Chicago) did in terms of return on their tuition investment. Chicago graduates had paid almost twice as much in tuition as Loyola graduates had, but their average starting salaries were almost $23,000 more per year.

That said, graduating from a top business school offers no exemption from the short-term ups and downs of the market.

MBAs from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business were earning an average salary of $100,000 in 2002, as compared to $110,000 in 2001. But salaries for consultants are now up to $120,000, with signing bonuses ranging up to $30,000, according to Richard McNulty, director of Tuck's career-development office.

In addition to offering higher salaries, more companies are looking for MBAs. The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., for example, says it plans to hire roughly 200 MBAs from the class of 2005, a 30% increase from the year before.

Another consulting firm, Boston-based Bain and Co., is hiring a "record" number of MBAs, says David Sanderson, head of global recruiting.

In still another positive sign: unlike in the past, some banks are guaranteeing bonuses to first year hires, says Julie Morton, associate dean of career services at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

One question lingers in this current atmosphere of prosperity: does an MBA degree guarantee financial success?

"All MBA graduates are not created equal. An MBA diploma from one school may not necessarily be worth the same amount to all who graduate from the program," says Dr. Ronald Yeaple, author of the MBA Advantage.

He adds that the value of a degree from any MBA school, top or not, is influenced by an individual's talent and ambition.

An MBA will not guarantee you endless promotions and unlimited wealth. It is merely a tool to increase employability.

However, the demand for qualified MBAs has never been higher.

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