My salary+bonus is 300k a year. Is that a disadvantage?

I don't think that should be the case. Though a B-school may be worried about the placements of its students, it would be convincing to the school adcom if you can make them understand the value addition an MBA can bring to your profile. Moreover B-school never expects to double the salary of its graduating batch ! Few people with good pre mba salaries do join NGOs at low salaries post mba .It's all about the bridging the gap between you and your dreams/goals etc and that' where an mba comes in . However, the only 2 reasons of pursuing an MBA I can think of are that you are looking either for some value addition or for a career switch(industry change). Apart from these reasons I guess it'd be really difficult to convince a B-school

Top 5 don't care, the rest might. Kellogg and Wharton in particular have **** ROI figures since they accept so many people with high pre-MBA salaries. I think Wharton has the worst ROI despite having the highest or 2nd highest post-MBA salary, due to the fact the average student is making $100k per year pre-MBA (at Yale, the average student is making $56k by comparison).

Not necessarily. If the story stacks up then I don't see why not. For example if one you currently work crazy hours and your aim is to get into corporate finance in F500 companies with better hours then sure it makes sense that you will be willing to sacrifice your current salary for a potentially lower salary post MBA.

What helps your cause is that you clearly must be doing something right at work to be pulling in $300k so you should be able to demonstrate a whole bunch of impressive achievements and examples of leadership.

Thank you for all your comments

What do you want to do after the MBA? if it's PE/VC or Corp Fin type change you're salary + bonus might not even sink much. If it's a complete industry pivot the MBA would make sense too. I have a wealth of classmates out of CBS who took a negative return the first year to switch industries/enter at ground floors or build a startup (it's never significant for the switch, obviously it is for founders) and if it's PE/VC they may wonder why if you're doing so well you haven't been head-hunted yet. However, as long as the story makes sense, being successful in your job obviously isn't going to hurt you.

4 promotions in 5 years is a clear advantage. The salary is just a reflection of that. The only area where your salary might hurt is in terms of scholarship money. HBS and Stanford only offer need-based aid, so you won't be eligible. But with your salary, that shouldn't be an issue for you.

Posted from my mobile device

Booth is 100% merit-based scholarship. Just sayin'...