Average vs Median MBA Package: The Audited Numbers Behind the Headline (2026)

Every admission season, one number does most of the selling: the average package. It is not a lie, but it is incomplete in a specific, knowable way — and the schools that file externally audited placement reports publish the rest of the picture. This page puts the audited mean and median side by side, using two reports we opened today, 21 August 2026: IIM Ahmedabad’s PGP Finals 2025 and IIM Udaipur’s Finals 2022-24, both filed under the Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS).

The audited pair: what IIMA’s 2025 report actually says

IIM Ahmedabad’s audited PGP Final Placement Report 2025 (audited by 82K Analytics, digitally signed 17 September 2025) covers 393 domestic offers. The domestic salary table reads: fixed yearly cash component — median Rs 25,31,500, mean Rs 26,98,712; total guaranteed cash — median Rs 29,30,009, mean Rs 29,83,955; maximum earning potential — median Rs 34,53,000, mean Rs 35,22,591, with a minimum of Rs 16,99,996 and a maximum of Rs 1.1 crore.

Three lessons sit in that one table. The mean runs ahead of the median at every head, because a minority of large offers pulls it up. The gap between the median MEP (Rs 34.53 lakh) and the median fixed cash (Rs 25.32 lakh) is Rs 9.2 lakh — the difference between the number that advertises well and the cash a typical graduate is guaranteed. And the maximum, Rs 1.1 crore, is triple the median: the “highest package” describes one offer in 393.

The second audited pair: IIM Udaipur 2022-24

IIM Udaipur’s audited final placement report for the 2022-24 batch tells the same story at a different scale: highest domestic maximum earning potential Rs 47.66 lakh, average MEP Rs 18.77 lakh, median earning potential Rs 18.00 lakh, and a fixed-cash table with a median of Rs 13,99,996 against a mean of Rs 14,15,340 across 297 data points. Again the mean edges the median; again the highest figure is roughly 2.6 times the middle. Two institutes, two audit firms’ worth of tables, one pattern.

The average-only publishers

Many credible private schools publish an average and a highest, and no median. MICA’s admissions page reports 2025 placements at an average of Rs 19.22 LPA and a highest of Rs 40.91 LPA. Great Lakes reports a class-of-2025 average CTC of Rs 18 LPA (highest Rs 39.6 lakh) for the one-year PGPM and Rs 15 LPA (highest Rs 39.3 lakh) for the two-year PGDM. These are real published figures — but without a median or a denominator, you cannot tell how the batch’s middle fared. That does not make the schools dishonest; it makes the question you must ask next unavoidable.

How to use this when an offer arrives

When a college — or an agent — quotes you a package, ask three things in writing: is the placement report externally audited, does the figure use fixed cash or maximum earning potential, and how many of the eligible students does it cover. Then compare like with like: median to median where both schools publish one, fixed cash to fixed cash, never one school’s MEP against another’s guaranteed component. Our placement-report methodology guide expands this into the full five-check method, and our budget-band page puts the verified fee against these verified outcomes.

If you are staring at two admit letters and two placement brochures that seem to disagree with themselves, send them to us. We will read both reports the way this page does — audited head by audited head — and tell you which offer is actually stronger, not which one advertises better.