Rochester Slashes MBA Tuition By 13.6%

Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester

Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester

PRICE CUT PUTS SIMON MORE IN LINE WITH BOSTON UNIVERSITY AND TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

Though applications to the full-time MBA program at Simon were up slightly by about 3% this past year, the dean predicts the price cut will result in a larger applicant pool in the 2015-2016 academic year. “I have a very strong belief that this will help us attract a bigger pool of applicants,” he says. “We believe that prospective students often overlook Simon due to our sticker price despite our strengths in academics, student quality, and career placement.”

The lower price tag puts Simon more in line with Boston University’s School of Management, which currently charges $94,844 in tuition for its full-time MBA and ranks nine places lower than Simon, and and Temple University’s Fox School of Business in Philadelphia and ranks 26 places lower, where tuition for incoming students is $92,718. Simon’s MBA would be significantly below the No. 30th-ranked University of Maryland’s Smith School where out-of-state tuition costs $104,760.

Tuition rates can sometimes mislead applicants on the true costs of an MBA. Some schools, for example, leave out of their posted tuition prices many required fees. At Temple University’s Fox School of Business, the listed full tuition for its two-year MBA is currently $92,718. That sum, however, fails to include required global immersion trips in the fall and spring semesters that tack on an extra $9,630, bringing the actual cost of Fox’s program to $102,348.

‘LIKE GIVING EVERYONE A SCHOLARSHIP OFF THE BAT OF $10,000 EACH’

At Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, where the out-of-state tuition seems very reasonable at $76,136 for two years, the additional fees bring the total cost to $89,466, not including room and board. The fees range from a $170 charge for orientation to a $1,850 estimate for the cost of a global immersion trip.

Dean Ainslie predicts that the cut will actually be “fairly revenue neutral” for the school. “We are not really changing the average price,” he explains. “We are changing the sticker price. Our level of scholarship support has been so generous that this is like giving everyone a scholarship off the bat of $10,000 each. We are not discounting over all. This is just about being more transparent about our pricing.”

Simon, which is known for teaching an economists’ perspective on markets, says the economists on his faculty are pleased with the move. “This has really piqued their interest,” he adds. “In essence what I am doing is acting like an economist. You have to look at the market conditions and align to them. Look at the data and make decisions based on the data. That’s exactly what we did here.”

Simon’s full-time MBA program is relatively small, with an intake this year of just 100 students.

DON’T MISS: WHAT IT REALLY COSTS TO GET AN ELITE MBA DEGREE or POETS&QUANTS’ TOP 100 MBA PROGRAMS IN THE U.S.

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.