TOP Australian MBA (typical USD150 000+ salaries)

I'd like to know of the source of your information (esp if you have any direct links you'd care to share). I am from Australia and I can tell you that this salary information just sounds plain wrong. The top Australian programs are AGSM (now called ASB) and Melbourne Business School. Neither of these schools lead to an immediate post MBA salary of 150K USD. In fact Australia is a country where MBA is not considered a such a big deal in terms of getting you executive positions. I suspect that the 150K salary is probably an outlier where the MBA student was probably already making over 100K before starting the program. Only a few top MBA programs (e.g. H/S/W/LBS/Insead etc) have a true brand "presence" here and often Australian students from these schools return to Australia to pursue consulting or banking careers. But even these folks don't receive 150K USD straight away as an Associate.

Australia (and Sydney where I am from) is an outstanding place to live. Quality of life is far superior to what I have experienced in London and Chicago (Maybe a little slower). But unfortunately it is isolated from the world especially if you are interested in Finance. Furthermore don't be deluded into believing Australians rarely work over 50 hrs a week. The true figure is more like 35-40 hours . However, for post MBA type jobs, you will still do the post MBA style hours. Finance and Consulting both demand and receive their pound of flesh. Industry life OTOH is pretty good.