MBA Programs For The Bargain Hunter

It’s no secret that full-time MBA programs cost a lot of money–especially when you add up the opportunity costs of quitting a job for two years. But there are some schools that offer an MBA degree at deep discounts from what most people pay.

U.S. News & World Report today (June 5) went through its database of more than 400 business schools in the U.S. to come up with a list of the ten least expensive MBAs at private universities. The school on top? Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management. At just $10,600 a year, an MBA degree from Marriott is just about one-sixth of the cost of what U.S. News says is the most expensive program at Harvard Business School where the sticker price for annual tuition and fees now comes to $60,610. (And if you’re a Mormon, tuition at BYU is even cheaper.)

MBA bargain hunters should also look at such schools as the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minn., and Williamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management in Salem, Ore., Oregon, schools that finished among the top five least expensive for their full-time MBA programs. The full cost of an MBA at St. Thomas is $56,000, while the full cost of an MBA at Atkinson is little more than $62,000.

Of course, these are sticker prices and can sometimes differ markedly from the actual price students pay when they attend these schools. Harvard, for example, grants substantial fellowship money to students each year. At HBS last year, the average annual scholarship granted to a student was $28,410 which brings down the sticker price significantly.

Top Ten Bargain Hunters’ MBA Programs

Inexpensive Private Schools	Annual Tuition & Fees	Full Cost of MBA
1. Brigham Young (Marriott)	$10,600	$21,200
2. Abilene Christian University	$25,270	$50,540
3. University of St. Thomas	$28,000	$56,000
4. Howard University	$28,516	$57,032
5. Williamette University (Atkinson)	$31,330	$62,660
6. American University (Kogod)	$31,872	$63,744
7. Baylor University (Hankamer)	$32,058	$64,116
8. Rollins College (Crummer)	$33,000	$66,000
9. Syracuse University (Whitman)	$34,106	$68,212
10. Rochester Institute of Tech (Saunders)	$34,878	$69,756