What It Now Costs To Get A Top-25 MBA Degree

Once again, the highest tuition of any U.S. B-school can be found in Philadelphia, at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School — though it shrank modestly in 2020. File photo

A HELPING HAND

An MBA from a top school, as well know, is not cheap. Five years ago, the average total cost to attend one of the programs in the charts below was about $168,000. Now it has grown about 16%. Fortunately, financial aid is available for an increasing number of MBA candidates.

At Stanford GSB, the average fellowship is about $40,000 per year or $80,000 in total awards; at Harvard, where 50% of the MBA class is eligible for assistance, it’s even more: $42,000 per year, or $84,000 total. UCLA Anderson has 625 scholarships, grants, fellowships, and awards; UC-Berkeley annually spreads millions around its relatively small MBA  cohort. At MIT Sloan, once again the year’s most expensive school, there are literally dozens of fellowships available, most of which don’t even require an application: students are automatically considered for them.

Beyond scholarships, there’s the fact that an MBA continues to be a reliable magnifier of salary potential. According to recent surveys by both the Graduate Management Admission Council and The Financial Times, post-MBA salaries rise by a median of $40,000. The schools with the best ROI and starting salaries? According to a recent P&Q analysis, it’s all the schools you see in the chart below. One of the most expensive schools to attend, NYU Stern, recently reported that despite the headwinds of coronavirus, its 2020 grads averaged more than $140,000 right out of the gate; while higher up the rankings, at Chicago Booth, an interim employment report this fall shows Boothies doing even better.

DON’T MISS: THE TOTAL COST TO ATTEND A TOP-25 MBA PROGRAM KEEPS RISING (2019) or THE STUDENT REVOLT OVER MBA TUITION FOR ONLINE CLASSES