What It Now Costs To Get An MBA At A Top Business School

A HELPING HAND

An MBA from a top school, as we well know, is not cheap. Six years ago, the average total cost to attend one of the programs in the charts below was about $168,000. Now it has grown nearly 19%. Fortunately, financial aid is available for an increasing number of MBA candidates.

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

And at NYU Stern School of Business, the school that in 2021 charges more for an MBA than any other, about 20% to 25% of admitted full-time two-year MBA students receive a merit-based scholarship, the majority of which are full- or half-tuition awards. All applicants, domestic and international, are considered.

Beyond scholarships, there’s the fact that an MBA continues to be a reliable magnifier of salary potential. A survey this year by the Graduate Management Admission Council shows that the median MBA salary for 2021 is projected to recover to its pre-pandemic 2020 level of $115,000 — which translates to a 77% advantage over those with a bachelor’s degree ($65,000) and 53% edge over those hired directly from industry ($75,000). The schools with the best ROI and starting salaries? According to a 2018 P&Q analysis, it’s all the ones you see in the chart below. For more recent statistics, see our latest reporting on jobs reports: At Northwestern Kellogg, total compensation for Class of 2021 MBAs grew to $175,800 this year; at Virginia Darden, average starting salary grew $4,988 to $144,933, a 3.6% increase. Over the past five years, base salaries for Darden MBAs have risen by over $22,000.

DON'T MISS THE 2020 JOB SEARCH: PLACEMENT RATES DOWN ACROSS THE TOP SCHOOLS and MBA INTERNSHIP PAY & PLACEMENT AT THE TOP 25