The Top One-Year MBA Programs In The United States

ONE-YEAR MBAs ARE ‘NOT FOR EVERYONE’

Emory Goizueta’s Brian Mitchell predicted the rise of the one-year MBA in 2021. In an article published by Poets&Quants, Mitchell, associate dean of full-time MBA programs for the Atlanta B-school, writes that “one-year MBA programs have slowly been on the rise in the U.S. lagging behind the popularity of the degree in Europe. But demand for the accelerated MBA has grown over the last decade as U.S. prospective students look for more focused paths and less expensive options to accelerate their careers.” He cites some then-new GMAC data showing that 47% of prospective students in 2018 considered a one-year MBA, the highest percentage in a decade, despite the fact that one-year MBA programs accounted for just 10% of AACSB-accredited MBA programs in the U.S. “A common myth,” Mitchell writes, “is that a one-year MBA is a watered-down MBA degree. Although it is a shorter academic experience, it is also a more intense experience that packs the full learning opportunities from a traditional full-time MBA into just one year.”

One-year MBA programs “are not for everyone,” Mitchell continues. “The intensity of the program can be daunting. And the high-touch nature of the program due to smaller cohort sizes is not a good fit for those looking to be a small fish in a big pond. But for those looking to accelerate their existing career paths or transition into a related field or industry, the lower cost, shorter timeframe, faster ROI, and higher touch accelerated MBA degree may be an ideal fit.”

CORNELL DROPS ITS ACCELERATED ONE-YEAR MBA

At one major U.S. school, one one-year MBA program is thriving, but two proved to be too many. For years, Cornell University boasted not one but two industry-leading one-year MBA programs, but in October Cornell’s Johnson College of Business announced that it will shutter its one-year Accelerated MBA after the graduation of this year’s class in spring 2023, allowing the school to double down on its other May-to-May program, the New York City-based Tech MBA. NYU Stern is now the only major U.S. B-school with two one-year MBA programs.

Andrew Karolyi, dean of Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business, says it was a hard choice to close down the Accelerated MBA, which for more than two decades has been among the top-ranked one-year programs in the United States. But he adds that Cornell’s leadership sees more promise in the five-year-old Tech MBA, a collaborative effort with Cornell Tech.

“It’s an interesting decision that we made, a very strategic one,” Karolyi told Poets&Quants last fall.  “One has to paint the picture of where we are. It has been a program that has been around for 20-plus years and has been doing fine. But we had grander ambitions for it.”

The Tech MBA, launched in 2017, was named P&Q‘s Program of the Year that year on the strength of its innovative and immediately popular Studi curriculum, in which students develop and implement new product and business ideas in collaboration with innovators and thought leaders from New York’s tech and startup communities. The Tech MBA has grown steadily from about 50 students in that first cohort to more than 80 in the one that enrolled last summer, and Karolyi expects it to grow even more.

The one-year Accelerated MBA, meanwhile, had been shrinking for years.

“We’ve had some wonderful students come through the Accelerated program and have gone on to be able to leverage it for very successful careers,” says Karolyi, who became Charles Field Knight dean of the College of Business in April 2021 after three years as dean of academic affairs and many more years as a finance professor at the school. “It’s wonderful meeting them along the way. But we’ve never felt that we were able to drive hard enough with that given its mission as it was crafted. We never felt we were able to meet our ambitious goals for it.”

As the Tech MBA has grown, the Accelerated MBA has declined, he notes. “The Tech MBA program had an initial target number of 50, and it’s now blossomed to about 85. We see imminently on the horizon the fact that we can grow this one.”

‘DEVELOPING MY PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS & BROADENING MY PERSPECTIVE’ 

For Munjal Joshi: the best part of the Lehigh College of Business one-year MBA program is its people. The biggest challenge has been the pace.

“The personalized attention from professors and staff has been exceptional,” Joshi tells P&Q. “The class size is largely international from candidates across the globe, allowing us to engage in genuinely fruitful discussions and helping me broaden my perspective. The biggest challenge has been balancing the high academic demands with other aspects of life. Still, the supportive environment at Lehigh has helped me navigate those challenges.”

After graduation this spring, Joshi will be joining Axtria, a global software and data analytics provider to the life sciences industry, as a senior associate consultant.

“My MBA has been instrumental in developing my problem-solving skills and broadening my perspective,” he says. “It has given me the confidence to take on new challenges and approach them with a strategic mindset. Additionally, the MBA has helped me develop a comprehensive understanding of business strategy, finance, marketing, and management, which are crucial for a consulting career; more importantly, this helped me develop a holistic point of view and think differently.”

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.