Is The MBA Really In The Middle Of A ‘Fire Sale’?

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported a “fire sale on U.S. MBAs,” an almost irresistible headline in a climate where pressure on domestic MBAs seems to be mounting from all sides.

But whether the U.S. MBA market is truly in the middle of a fire sale depends largely on which part of the market you’re eyeing.

Yes, some business schools have cut prices or expanded scholarships to help fill classrooms as AI disruption, weaker international demand, and growing skepticism around return on investment reshape prospective students’ decision trees.

The Journal article highlighted two examples: Since fall 2025, Purdue University Mitch Daniels School of Business slashed the cost of its 48-credit online STEM MBA from $60,000 for out-of-state students all the way down to $35,000. That’s a 40% cut.

Meanwhile, University of California, Irvine’s Merage School of Business now offers discounts as high as 38% for its Flex and Executive MBA programs.

But, at least one MBA consultant cautions against overstating the journal’s “fire sale” narrative.

“Not all MBAs are the same,” Laura Nelson, an MBA admissions consultant who advises applicants to elite programs, wrote on a LinkedIn post about the Journal’s framing.

“A discounted online or part-time program doesn’t provide the same recruiting access, alumni network, or career services as a top full-time program. The investment is different – and so are the outcomes.”

INTERNATIONALS LOOK BEYOND U.S. MBAs

A major pressure point for U.S. MBAs is how the shift in international student migration is affecting applications.

In February, Poets&Quants reported that multiple U.S. MBA programs saw applications fall between 20% and 30% in the most recent admissions cycle, with the sharpest declines concentrated among international applicants.

It’s not that international students don’t want to study abroad. It’s that they don’t want to study abroad in the U.S. at the clip they once did. The Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2025 Application Trends Survey found that global business school applications grew 7% last year (after a 12% jump in 2024). But Asia and continental Europe captured much of that growth.

“Speaking with hundreds of domestic and international applicants each year, it’s clear that demand among international candidates for U.S. MBA programs has declined since the start of Trump’s first administration,” Stacy Blackman, founder and CEO of Stacy Blackman Consulting, told Poets&Quants in February.

“That shift has been further exacerbated in the current years with Trump’s controversial policy dynamics, including H-1B contraction and arduous student visa processes.”

At the same time, Blackman says the firm has seen an increase in applicants holding multiple citizenships, including U.S. citizenship, a profile that has performed particularly well at elite M7 programs. Indeed, elite schools like Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business remain highly selective and globally competitive.

“Top-tier schools have been better positioned to maintain balance with domestic and international representation, while programs ranked outside the top tier may be more vulnerable to these structural pressures,” Blackman says.

That imbalance matters financially. International students often make up a significant share of MBA classrooms, and they frequently pay close to full sticker price. As those numbers soften, tuition-dependent programs face growing pressure to compete more aggressively on cost, scholarships, and flexibility.

‘JOB HUGGING’ IN A SHAKY MARKET

The MBA has traditionally been somewhat countercyclical. Applications rise in a weak economy as professionals look to reskill and make themselves more competitive in a tight job market. They fall when hiring markets are strong because workers feel confident they can advance without leaving the workforce.

The current moment may be breaking the pattern.

Hiring in some white-collar industries has cooled and two years of layoffs in consulting, tech, and finance have shaken confidence in industries that once reliably hired MBA graduates. Instead of rushing into full-time MBA programs, many professionals appear to be clinging to jobs they already have – a trend the Journal calls “job hugging.”

“Leaving a secure job, even one lacking long-term upward mobility, is a scary move in a strong economic market. It is even more terrifying during a time of political and economic uncertainty,” Scott Edinburgh, founder of Personal MBA Coach, told P&Q this spring.

In past recessions, such as in late 2009 when the unemployment rate peaked at over 10%, applicants found they had nothing to lose by applying to business school, Edinburgh says.

“With the current unemployment rate of 4.4%, there are more applicants in stagnant roles who are hesitant to leave the job market. This means we are not seeing enough of a jump in domestic candidates to balance out the international drops.”

AI is simultaneously adding a new layer of uncertainty. Prospective students may question how well the skills traditionally taught in an MBA will translate to a job market no one can quite yet imagine. With MBA price tags stretching into the tens — and often hundreds — of thousands of dollars, even for online programs, they may ask whether shorter and cheaper AI-focused programs offer a more immediate return.

“Almost every job posting I’ve seen for internships or new graduates wants some kind of AI skills and expertise,” Christien Wong, a business and computer science student at Washington University who plans to enter Olin’s new AI for Business master’s program this fall, told the Journal. “I think it’s the right move to give me the right skill sets for the future.”

THE NEW MBA SALES PITCH

While B-schools typically sell management degrees generally around leadership, networking, and career mobility, some are shifting the pitch toward adaptability, technical fluency, and workforce survival. That shift is visible not only in curriculum redesigns, but in how schools are marketing and pricing their programs.

According to the Journal, Washington University in St. Louis Olin Business School recently launched a $10,000 scholarship for professionals whose careers have been disrupted by AI, either through layoffs or rapid workplace adoption requiring retraining. The scholarship applies to the school’s new Master of Science in AI for Business program.

Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School is offering a 50% scholarship to graduates of Maryland colleges entering select specialized master programs this fall, including finance and healthcare management.

According to GMAC, 47% of incoming graduate management students received merit-based scholarships last year, up from 32% a decade earlier. At the same time, schools have increasingly leaned into hybrid, online, part-time, and one-year specialty programs aimed at professionals unwilling to pause their careers or take on significant debt.

The shift reflects a changing student calculus. A one-year AI-focused master’s program may feel more practical than a broad general management MBA. A hybrid or online degree may feel safer than stepping away from income entirely. And a lower-cost credential with immediate workplace applications may feel easier to justify in an uncertain labor market.

In that sense, the MBA may not be disappearing so much as it is being unbundled.

CAN BUSINESS SCHOOLS SUSTAIN THE DISCOUNTS?

If costs to deliver quality management education continue to rise, and the pool of qualified applicants continues to fall, mid-tier schools may increasingly compete on price. In March, Bloomberg reported on an emerging scholarship arms race among business schools.

“There’s a scholarship war, to put it bluntly,” Patrik Wallén, head of MBA admissions at IESE Business School, told Bloomberg in the article. He described losing a candidate to a U.S. program offering a full scholarship plus living expenses, an offer IESE could not match.

The question is how long that competition can remain financially sustainable. At what point does the market stop accepting MBA sticker prices that can exceed $200,000?

That, of course, depends on what kind of return one is looking or.

Nelson, the MBA admissions consultant, argued in her LinkedIn post that MBA ROI has always been highly personal and career-dependent. For some career changers, she wrote, the credential, network, and recruiting access remain essential.

“The job market is definitely tight, but an MBA has always been an investment with some level of risk,” she wrote. “The difference now is that more people are asking the right questions before they apply.”

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