The M7: Still (Mostly) The Most Magnificent Of Them All

What You Can Expect To Pay At An M7 School & Who You’ll Be Rubbing Elbows With

An MBA degree from an M7 school is pretty much a sure thing. No one is going to question your decision to go to any of these schools, and very few of the graduates from these institutions regret their choice to attend. But none of this comes cheap.

The highest estimated cost of the MBA degree among these elite schools is at MIT, where two years of tuition, room and board and other expenses comes to an estimated $237,636. Before this year the most expensive MBA program year in and year out was usually Stanford GSB’s. But at Stanford — where the price tag, including living expenses, is now $231,834 — the total cost has only risen by a few dollars since last year. Of course, that’s the price for a single person — it’s much more costly for married students at Stanford, where the two-year cost of an MBA balloons to $277,044 if you have a spouse.

Then again, all these gaudy tuition and total cost numbers are pre-scholarship grants — and it turns out that even though all of the M7 schools now cost well over $200,000 to attend, all offer financial help at fairly high levels, with both Harvard and Stanford MBA students receiving an average of more than $35,000 annually (according to the most recent data available), and Wharton and Booth students close behind at $32,000 and $30,000, respectively. This data is a couple of years old, however, and schools don’t make overall figures like this readily available; check the schools’ websites for more information on fellowships and scholarships. There are many. The money is out there. We know, for example, that Harvard leads the way in aid packages among most schools. That’s an important part of the financial puzzle to keep in mind when you apply to these schools. Don’t let the sky-high tuition scare you off. In effect, every school has a two-tier pricing structure for the MBA: the full sticker price and the discounted price. Stanford and Harvard claim to only give out money based on need, but all the other schools are using the cash to lure the best-qualified applicants to their programs.

Another important part of the puzzle: ROI. Below see charts on not only the cost of an M7 MBA but also the latest salary and bonus figures. And for good measure, we threw in a couple more charts on what each school’s cohorts have looked like over the last couple of years in terms of undergraduate and professional experience.

SEE POETS&QUANTS‘ CLASS of 2021 PROFILES FOR EACH OF THE M7 SCHOOLS:

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL 

THE WHARTON SCHOOL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA  

COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO BOOTH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS 

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT 

STANFORD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS 

MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT  

AND DON’T MISS OUR MOST RECENT BREAKDOWN OF THE TOTAL COST AT THE TOP 25 U.S. B-SCHOOLS, INCLUDING THE M7