Size Of BU’s First Online MBA Cohort Upped By A Third

The atrium at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business

After initially hoping to attract a debut cohort of 250 to 300 students for its new $24,000 online MBA program, Boston University’s Questrom School of Business now expects to enroll a class of 400 students. That would be 33% to 60% above the expected target goal for the program and 100 more students than the currently enrolled 300 in Questrom’s full-time residential MBA.

JP Matychak, associate dean for strategic initiatives, told Poets&Quants that the school now has more than 830 applicants for the new program, with 330 deposits so far. “We increased our first class to 400 students because the applicant pool was so incredibly strong,” he says. The school expects to get another 70 admits putting down their deposits by the final June 3 deadline. The program starts on Sept, 2, though an orientation will kick it off the experience in early August.

As of May 22, the incoming students are from 35 states with 43 countries represented, including nearly every time zone in the world. Some 70% of the students who have committed to the program with a deposit are domestic.

DEPOSITED ONLINE MBA STUDENTS WILL BRING AN AVERAGE 12 YEARS OF WORK EXPERIENCE TO THE PROGRAM

JP Matychak, associate dean for strategic initiatives at Questrom

The average age of the deposited cohort is 36, with an average 12 years of work experience. The program does not require either a GMAT or GRE but the average undergraduate grade point average for the students is 3.3. Even more surprising, perhaps, is that 24 of the 330 students already hold doctoral degrees, while 176 hold master’s degrees.

It was only last July when the school announced the fall 2020 launch of its online MBA in partnership with edX, the education platform founded at Harvard and MIT in 2012. At a total cost of just $24,000, Questrom’s new online MBA instantly became one of the most frugal options in online graduate business education, along with the University of Illinois’ $22,000 iMBA at Gies College of Business. Launched four years ago, Gies now has an online enrollment of more than 3,200 students from a debut cohort of just 114 students.

The Questrom program can be completed in as little as 21 months, requiring nine to 16 hours of work per week. Each of six modules (see below) will end with what Questrom is calling an “action-learning experience” with a capstone project at the end of the program. Unlike some rival programs, Questrom’s online MBA will not offer any electives or residencies. It is 100% online.

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