How does this MiM ROI calculator work?

It uses the honest three-part method: total cost = tuition + living costs for the whole programme + the opportunity cost of the salary you give up while studying; the benefit = the salary uplift the degree realistically adds over what you'd have earned anyway (your counterfactual); and the payback period = total cost divided by your annual uplift. Pick a school to prefill its tuition and programme length, then enter your own living cost, your counterfactual salary and your expected salary with the MiM. The result is a payback period and a five- and ten-year net position. It's a planning tool, not financial advice.

Where do the tuition and salary figures come from?

The school dropdown prefills tuition and programme length from our verified programme profiles — 95 European Master in Management programmes, each sourced to the school's own pages. Those figures are in the school's own currency. The salary shown next to a school is the median first-job figure it (or the Financial Times) reports, displayed only as a reference; it is deliberately not used in the maths, because the honest uplift is the gap between what you expect to earn and your realistic counterfactual — not the school's headline number. Edit any prefilled figure to match the current cycle.

Why does the calculator ask for my salary without the MiM?

Because that counterfactual is the single most important — and most commonly skipped — input. Its first job is the opportunity cost: the salary you give up for every year you're studying belongs in the cost column, and it's often the biggest cost of the degree. Its second job is the baseline for the uplift: the benefit of the MiM is your expected salary minus what you'd have earned without it, not your whole new salary. Leaving the counterfactual out is what makes naive ROI numbers look spectacular and dishonest.

What counts as a good payback period?

There's no universal threshold — the point is to compute your own range and decide whether it's tolerable. A near-free public-university MiM with a strong consulting outcome can pay back in a couple of years; an expensive programme into a modest-paying sector pays back slowly, or on pure finance may not be the point at all. Run the numbers with a low and a high estimate for each input to get a range rather than false precision, and weigh the financial answer alongside the non-financial returns — network, optionality, a career switch.

Does the calculator handle different currencies and taxes?

Keep every figure in one currency and on one basis (gross or net throughout) — the tool does not convert between currencies or model tax, so mixing them will distort the result. The currency selector only changes the symbol shown. Note too that ranking-table salaries (like the Financial Times') are often cost-of-living (PPP) adjusted, so don't mix a PPP-adjusted salary with a raw tuition figure. The output is undiscounted and pre-tax — treat it as a sanity-check range, not a precise forecast.

ROI calculator

Will your MiM pay for itself?

Work out the honest return on a European Master in Management — total cost, salary uplift and payback period — for your situation. Free, and nothing leaves your browser.

Start from a school (optional — prefills tuition & length)

Currency

Total tuition (whole programme)

Programme length (years)

Living cost (per year)

Rent, food, transport, insurance. See the cost of living by city.

Salary without the MiM (per year, your counterfactual)

What you'd realistically earn each year if you didn't do the degree. Used as both your opportunity cost and the baseline for the uplift.

Expected salary with the MiM (per year)

A realistic first-job figure for the sector and city you're targeting — same basis (gross or net) as above.

Fill in your counterfactual and expected salaries above to see your payback.

A planning aid, not financial advice or a guarantee. Figures are undiscounted and pre-tax; keep everything in one currency. The honest output is a range — run a low and a high estimate. For the full method and its traps, read how to calculate MiM ROI.

"Is a MiM worth it?" is really a question about return on investment — and most people answer it badly, by ignoring the costs that matter most or by crediting the degree with a salary they'd have earned anyway. This calculator runs the honest method for your own numbers: it counts the opportunity cost of time out of work, credits only the uplift over your counterfactual, and turns it into a payback period. For our overall read, see is a MiM worth it in 2026.

About the ROI calculator

How does this MiM ROI calculator work? It uses the honest three-part method: total cost = tuition + living costs for the whole programme + the opportunity cost of the salary you give up while studying; the benefit = the salary uplift the degree realistically adds over what you'd have earned anyway (your counterfactual); and the payback period = total cost divided by your annual uplift. Pick a school to prefill its tuition and programme length, then enter your own living cost, your counterfactual salary and your expected salary with the MiM. The result is a payback period and a five- and ten-year net position. It's a planning tool, not financial advice.: It uses the honest three-part method: total cost = tuition + living costs for the whole programme + the opportunity cost of the salary you give up while studying; the benefit = the salary uplift the degree realistically adds over what you'd have earned anyway (your counterfactual); and the payback period = total cost divided by your annual uplift. Pick a school to prefill its tuition and programme length, then enter your own living cost, your counterfactual salary and your expected salary with the MiM. The result is a payback period and a five- and ten-year net position. It's a planning tool, not financial advice.
Where do the tuition and salary figures come from? The school dropdown prefills tuition and programme length from our verified programme profiles — 95 European Master in Management programmes, each sourced to the school's own pages. Those figures are in the school's own currency. The salary shown next to a school is the median first-job figure it (or the Financial Times) reports, displayed only as a reference; it is deliberately not used in the maths, because the honest uplift is the gap between what you expect to earn and your realistic counterfactual — not the school's headline number. Edit any prefilled figure to match the current cycle.: The school dropdown prefills tuition and programme length from our verified programme profiles — 95 European Master in Management programmes, each sourced to the school's own pages. Those figures are in the school's own currency. The salary shown next to a school is the median first-job figure it (or the Financial Times) reports, displayed only as a reference; it is deliberately not used in the maths, because the honest uplift is the gap between what you expect to earn and your realistic counterfactual — not the school's headline number. Edit any prefilled figure to match the current cycle.
Why does the calculator ask for my salary without the MiM? Because that counterfactual is the single most important — and most commonly skipped — input. Its first job is the opportunity cost: the salary you give up for every year you're studying belongs in the cost column, and it's often the biggest cost of the degree. Its second job is the baseline for the uplift: the benefit of the MiM is your expected salary minus what you'd have earned without it, not your whole new salary. Leaving the counterfactual out is what makes naive ROI numbers look spectacular and dishonest.: Because that counterfactual is the single most important — and most commonly skipped — input. Its first job is the opportunity cost: the salary you give up for every year you're studying belongs in the cost column, and it's often the biggest cost of the degree. Its second job is the baseline for the uplift: the benefit of the MiM is your expected salary minus what you'd have earned without it, not your whole new salary. Leaving the counterfactual out is what makes naive ROI numbers look spectacular and dishonest.
What counts as a good payback period? There's no universal threshold — the point is to compute your own range and decide whether it's tolerable. A near-free public-university MiM with a strong consulting outcome can pay back in a couple of years; an expensive programme into a modest-paying sector pays back slowly, or on pure finance may not be the point at all. Run the numbers with a low and a high estimate for each input to get a range rather than false precision, and weigh the financial answer alongside the non-financial returns — network, optionality, a career switch.: There's no universal threshold — the point is to compute your own range and decide whether it's tolerable. A near-free public-university MiM with a strong consulting outcome can pay back in a couple of years; an expensive programme into a modest-paying sector pays back slowly, or on pure finance may not be the point at all. Run the numbers with a low and a high estimate for each input to get a range rather than false precision, and weigh the financial answer alongside the non-financial returns — network, optionality, a career switch.
Does the calculator handle different currencies and taxes? Keep every figure in one currency and on one basis (gross or net throughout) — the tool does not convert between currencies or model tax, so mixing them will distort the result. The currency selector only changes the symbol shown. Note too that ranking-table salaries (like the Financial Times') are often cost-of-living (PPP) adjusted, so don't mix a PPP-adjusted salary with a raw tuition figure. The output is undiscounted and pre-tax — treat it as a sanity-check range, not a precise forecast.: Keep every figure in one currency and on one basis (gross or net throughout) — the tool does not convert between currencies or model tax, so mixing them will distort the result. The currency selector only changes the symbol shown. Note too that ranking-table salaries (like the Financial Times') are often cost-of-living (PPP) adjusted, so don't mix a PPP-adjusted salary with a raw tuition figure. The output is undiscounted and pre-tax — treat it as a sanity-check range, not a precise forecast.

The ROI calculator needs JavaScript. In the meantime, the method is simple enough to do by hand — read how to calculate the ROI of a MiM (total cost ÷ salary uplift = payback), then weigh the cheapest and highest-salary shortlists together.