Ranking: U.S. News Online MBA Ranking For 2025 by: John A. Byrne on January 21, 2025 | 4,132 Views January 21, 2025 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit U.S. News again ranks the Kelley School of Business’ online MBA program best in the nation For the tenth time in 13 years, Indiana University’s Kelley Direct online MBA program has topped U.S. News’ ranking of the best online MBA programs in the U.S. It is an unprecedented record of success in a highly cluttered and competitive market. The 2025 list, published today (Feb. 21), ranks 355 different online MBAs out of more than 700 options that now exist in the U.S. alone. A recent study found that the explosive growth in online MBA education has caused the average enrollment per program to decline to 182 in 2023 from 215 in 2018 while the average price of the degree has fallen to a mere $31,500 (see Have Online MBA Programs Jumped The Shark?). Still, an estimated 58% of students enrolled in MBAs in the U.S. are now in online programs. Kenan-Flagler Business School’s MBA@UNC program is right behind Kelley in second place this year. Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business hybrid online MBA is in third, while the Universities of Florida and Washington are tied for fourth place. The biggest gain among Top Ten programs was made by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Ross’ online MBA option, priced at a heady $128,000 for non-residents, moved up ten places to rank sixth from 16th a year earlier. BIG RANKING GAINS BY MICHIGAN, UC-DAVIS & HOFSTRA Other notable advances were made by UC-Davis Graduate School of Management, up 22 places to rank 20th, and Hofstra University, up 15 spots, to place 14th. Still, other business schools saw even larger upward movement: Loyola University in Maryland soared 91 places to rank 29th and Kennesaw State University jumped 70 spots to rank 42nd. Of course, massive ups and downs like these only undermine the ranking’s credibility because few changes, if any, occur in these programs year-over-year. Even more shocking in this ranking, three online MBA programs managed to rise by more than 100 places in a single year: Georgia Southern University gained 117 spots, going to 100 from 217 last year; the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee jumped 114 places to rank 135 from 249, and Ohio University, advanced 105 spots to finish 88th from 193rd a year ago. Such roller-coaster results aren’t likely to make many believe in this ranking’s validity. And many other online MBA programs had either outsized gains or declines. Bentley University saw its online MBA program in the Boston metro area gain 92 places to rank 55th. Wake Forest University’s online MBA jumped 90 spots to rank 65th. U.S. News Online MBA Ranking Top 10 Online Options In U.S. For 2025 2025 School & Rank 2024 Rank Y-O-Y Change Per Credit Cost Total Cost 1. Indiana (Kelley) 1 ——– $1,636 $94,944 2. North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) 3 +1 $2,025 $125,589 3. Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) 2 -1 $2,274 $149,058 4. Florida 6 +2 $1,208 $59,807 4. Washington (Foster) 3 -1 $1,242 $96,000 6. Michigan (Ross) 16 +10 $2,090 $128,000 7. Arizona State (Carey) 7 ——- $2,327 $66,266 7. Arizona (Eller) 7 ——– $1,250 $56,250 7. Kansas 9 +2 $865 $36,330 7. Southern California (Marshall) 3 -4 $2,307 $132,970 KELLEY HAS GROWN ONLINE MBA ENROLLMENT BY 69% IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS Kelley, one of the first business schools to launch an online MBA in 1999, has defied the downward trend in online MBA education. Kelly has the lowest acceptance rate of any ranked online MBA: 29%. That compares with Carnegie Mellon’s 80% accept rate, UNC’s 58%, and Michigan’s 57%. A Kelley MBA now costs $94,944, roughly three times the average, while Kelley Direct’s current enrollment totals 1,729 students, more than nine times the average and an increase of nearly 80 students from last year. More than 5,500 online learners have graduated since Kelley enrolled its first cohort of 45 students 26 years ago. More telling, however, is that over the past five years, Kelly has gained formidable ground against what has long been its key rival in online MBA education: Kenan-Flagler Business School’s MBA@UNC. Kelley’s online MBA enrollment has soared 69% since 2020 from 1,014 students, while enrollment in MBA@UNC has declined by 16%. Kelley has been able to achieve scale without compromising quality. It is only one of 24 business schools in the U.S. with a student enrollment of more than 1,000 online MBA students (see table below). Its leadership position has also helped Indiana’s pricing power. Kelley has increased the price of its offering by 22%, or more than $20,000, while UNC’s pricing remained flat over the past five years. Only two of the top five online MBA programs were able to boost the price of their programs: Kelley and the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. WHAT MAKES THE KELLEY PROGRAM STANDOUT Yet, even at its increased cost, the online MBA at Kelley is something of a bargain among the fully featured online MBA options with weekly Internet classes taught by the school’s faculty, not adjuncts, 10 to 14 annual domestic and global immersions, on-campus residencies, a deep portfolio of electives, seven concentrations, and full career support with one-on-one coaching. Most of its peers offering similar bells and whistles remain in the six-figure category, with UNC priced at $30,600 more, Michigan at $33,000 more, and Southern California’s Marshall School at $38,000 more. What is also surprising given the increased competition in online MBA education is that four of U.S. News’ Top Five programs this year are in the same exact order as they were five years ago with only one exception: Washington Foster, ranked tenth in 2020, is now fifth, while USC, ranked fifth in 2020, is now seventh. The U.S. News ranking is based on unaudited data provided by “regionally accredited” business schools along with what U.S. News calls a peer assessment survey of “high-ranking academic officials at MBA programs.” For the latter survey, the website tosses in data collected over the past three years. The ranking organization does not report how many officials were surveyed nor how many responded. U.S. News does not survey students, graduates, or employers for the ranking. The school-provided data and the opinions are rolled up into an overly complicated formula that centers on nearly 50 different metrics in five measured categories: Student engagement (30% of the weight), peer assessment (25%), student excellence (15%), faculty credentials and training (15%), and student services and technology (15%). HOW THE U.S. NEWS LIST DIFFERS FROM POETS&QUANTS’ ONLINE MBA RANKING In each of the five ranking categories, several metrics are taken into account. To measure “engagement,” for example, U.S. News assigns a 35% weight to the graduation rate defined by the two-year average of students who completed the online MBA within three years, and another 35% to what it terms “best practices.” Half the score in this part of the ranking is based on a program having accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs, or the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education. Unlike the recently published Poets&Quants 2025 ranking of the best online MBAs, U.S. News does not survey graduates of the programs. U.S. News’ reliance on only school-supplied data is what led to cheating by Temple University’s Fox School of Business several years ago. The University of Texas in Dallas topped this year’s P&Q ranking, while Indiana and Michigan tied for second place. Online MBA Programs With More Than 1,000 Students Currently Enrolled School Enrollment Location U.S. News Rank Total Cost University of Illinois (Gies) 4,898 Illinois Unranked* $24,984 Colorado Technical University 2,741 Colorado 256 $29,280 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 2,592 Texas 272-355 $6,016 Eastern University 2,423 Pennsylvania 272-355 $9,900 Liberty University (Overton) 2,378 Virginia 219 $22,140 Boston University (Questrom) 2,316 Massachusetts Unranked $25,000 University of Southern Indiana (Romain) 1,798 Indiana 128 $13,950 DeVry University (Keller) 1,788 Illinois 272-355 $37,248 Indiana University (Kelley) 1,729 Indiana 1 $94,944 Jack Welch Management Institute 1,700 Washington, DC Unranked $46,200 LaMar University 1,649 Texas 272-355 $9,930 University of Iowa (Tippie) 1,593 Iowa 25 $33,750 Fitchburg State University 1,546 Massachusetts 272-355 $8,250 Trine University 1,504 Indiana 272-355 $17,250 University of Massachusetts-Amherst (Isenberg) 1,501 Massachusetts 16 $36,075 University of Massachusetts-Lowell (Manning) 1,384 Massachusetts 33 $19,650 Washington State University (Carson) 1,309 Washington 33 $43,104 University of North Carolina-Pembroke 1,299 North Carolina 219 $35,770 Northern Kentucky University (Haile) 1,228 Kentucky 122 $17,259 Texas Woman’s University (Kick) 1,226 Texas 190 $29,268 Penn State World Campus 1,116 Pennsylvania 33 $60,480 Southern Utah University 1,052 Utah 172 $17,460 University of North Alabama 1,025 Alabama 230 $19,980 University of Louisiana-Lafayette (Moody) 1,009 Louisiana 128 $12,800 * Gies College of Business does not participate in rankings Connect With Our Online MBA Partners Continue ReadingPage 1 of 3 1 2 3