A 1976 graduate of the Harvard Business School who reported a first-year salary of $42,000 as a member of the marketing department of a large oil firm was just one of 572 members of the Business School Class of 1976 that showed a median salary of $20,000 in response to a survey by the Office of Career Management.

Information gained from the survey, which tapped 80 per cent of the class, showed a high salary of $42,000 and a low of $5000.

The $20,000 median is an increase of $1400 over last year's figure, although it may have been introduced as a result of the variations in graduates responding each year.

"Careers Not Jobs"

Dean W. Currie, director of admissions and financial aid for the MBA program, said yesterday that although he is naturally pleased with the reported salaries, Business School placement personnel are interested in "placing students in careers, not just first jobs." Currie placed little emphasis on the $20,000 figure.

Representatives of alumni offices from both the Law School and the Med School reached yesterday said that salary figures for recent graduates of those schools were not available.

Sixty-three survey respondents in the class are now consultants of one kind or another at a median salary of $24,000 a year. They represent the largest block of respondents going into a single industry.

Geographically, the survey showed no significant variation between salaries of graduates going to different regions for employment. Companies in the Northeast hired 30 per cent of the pollees, and on the West Coast companies hired 8 per cent.