MIT’s Evening MBA Is About To Shake Up One Of The Country’s Most Lucrative Part-Time Markets

MIT Sloan School of Management’s new Evening MBA, announced July 15, doesn’t just add a fourth format to the school’s own portfolio. It walks straight into one of the most lucrative part-time MBA markets in the country – a Greater Boston ecosystem that supports six competing programs, more than 1,600 combined part-time MBA students, and an estimated $166 million in tuition revenue currently on the books across their enrolled cohorts.

Dean Richard Locke insists Sloan isn’t there to take that market’s existing students. “That’s what the market analysis showed – these were incredibly qualified people who would come to MIT but otherwise not go elsewhere,” Locke says. “We’re not poaching from others. It’s really a group of people who otherwise wouldn’t be pursuing an MBA in the Boston area.”

That may be true of the specific pool Sloan tested. But it doesn’t mean the other six programs in the region are insulated. With the same regional pool of prospective students now facing an MIT-branded option for the first time, it’s difficult to imagine that some candidates who would otherwise have enrolled at Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, UMass Boston, Bentley, or Suffolk won’t instead choose Sloan.

THE OTHER PART-TIME MBA PROGRAMS IN BOSTON

U.S. News Part-Time MBA Rank	School	Enrollment	Credits Required	Tuition per credit	Tuition – Total Program
16	Boston College (Carroll)	444	57	$2,306	$131,442
20T	Boston (Questrom)	454	55	$2,183	$120,065
63T	Northeastern (D’Amore-McKim)	142	50	$2,261	$113,040
98T	UMass-Boston	371	39	$817 (in-state), $1,692 out-of-state)	$31,878 (in-state), $60,923 (out-of-state)
109T	Bentley (McCallum)	174	36-45	$2,032	$73,152-$91,440
149T	Suffolk (Sawyer)	82	36	$1,874	$67,464

Total tuition calculations based on credit requirements and U.S. News & World Report cost data 

---

NOT BRANDED ‘PART-TIME’ – BUT COMPETING FOR THE SAME STUDENTS

One distinction worth making clear: MIT Sloan is not marketing the Evening MBA as a part-time program, and structurally, it isn’t one – not in the way the six schools above use the term. It’s built around a mandatory, cohort-based schedule in which students commit to two evenings a week in person for 22 months alongside a group that starts and finishes together, rather than the come-and-go, self-paced format that defines the part-time options at peer schools Chicago Booth and Northwestern Kellogg, as well as every school listed above. Sloan refers to it simply as the Evening MBA.

That distinction shapes how MIT frames the program, but it doesn’t change who it’s competing for. When it opens applications to seat its first cohort, which will begin classes in August 2027, the Evening MBA will draw from the same population these six schools rely on: working professionals in Greater Boston who want an MBA without stepping away from their jobs. Whether MIT calls its offering “part-time” or not, the applicant pool it’s chasing overlaps to a large degree with theirs.

Three schools account for the bulk of part-time MBA enrollment in the region: Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, and UMass Boston’s College of Management. Together (see above), they enroll more than 1,200 part-time MBA students – 454 at BU, 444 at BC, and 371 at UMass Boston, according to U.S. News data.

Bentley University’s McCallum Graduate School of Business (174 students), Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business (142), and Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School (82) round out the six-school field, each drawing from smaller but overlapping pools of working professionals across Greater Boston. Combined, the six schools currently enroll roughly 1,667 part-time MBA students.

THE REVENUE AT STAKE

For these schools, part-time MBA students are not a side business – they’re a core revenue line, and the numbers make clear why a new, MIT-branded competitor matters.

At Boston College, the part-time MBA requires 57 credits at $2,306 per credit, for total tuition and fees of $131,442. At the school’s current part-time enrollment of 444 students, that cohort will collectively pay an estimated $58.4 million in tuition over the life of their degrees – the largest single exposure in the market.

Boston University isn’t far behind: 55 credits at $2,183 per credit brings total tuition to $120,065, and with 454 enrolled part-timers, BU’s cohort represents roughly $54.5 million. Northeastern requires 50 credits at $2,261 per credit ($113,040 total); with 142 students enrolled, that’s about $16.1 million. Bentley’s program runs 36 to 45 credits at $2,032 per credit, putting total tuition between $73,152 and $91,440 depending on how many credits a given student needs – across its 174 part-time students, that’s a range of $12.7 million to $15.9 million in exposure. Suffolk requires 36 credits at $1,874 per credit ($67,464 total); its smaller cohort of 82 students represents about $5.5 million. UMass Boston, which charges $817 per credit in-state and $1,692 out-of-state across 39 credits ($31,878 or $60,923 total, respectively), has 371 students whose collective tuition falls somewhere between $11.8 million and $22.6 million depending on residency mix.

Add it up and before counting a single new incoming class, the six schools are currently sitting on an estimated $166 million in future tuition from students who are already enrolled. Every part-time student who chooses MIT over a regional alternative going forward represents real tuition revenue, often well into six figures per student, that a competing program won’t collect.

WHERE THE COMPETITION SITS TODAY

The six schools currently occupy very different positions in the national part-time MBA rankings, which matters for how exposed each is to a new, higher-prestige entrant. Notably, the region’s two largest programs are both trending up. In the 2026 U.S. News Part-Time MBA Ranking, Boston College’s Carroll School climbed to No. 16, up from No. 17 the prior year and No. 23 two years ago. Boston University’s Questrom School made an even sharper jump, vaulting nine spots to No. 20 (tie) – cracking the top 20 nationally for the first time in recent years, up from No. 27 in 2025 and No. 37 as recently as 2023.

The remaining four schools sit further down the list: Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim program ranks No. 63 (tie) nationally, UMass Boston is No. 98 (tie), Bentley’s McCallum program comes in at No. 109 (tie), and Suffolk’s Sawyer Business School rounds out the group at No. 149 (tie), according to U.S. News.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF COMPETITOR

What makes Sloan’s entrance different from, say, Northeastern and Bentley competing with each other is prestige. None of the six existing programs carries M7 brand weight. For a prospective student choosing between a regional part-time MBA and one stamped with the MIT name, the calculus changes considerably – particularly for candidates already weighing BC or BU against Sloan on reputation alone, even before cost or format enter the picture.

Dean Richard Locke’s position that Sloan’s applicant pool is additive, not extractive, rests on the assumption that MIT’s target candidates simply wouldn’t have pursued an MBA otherwise. That may be true for a meaningful share of them, but for candidates on the fence between, say, a Carroll School part-time MBA and forgoing the degree altogether, an MIT Sloan option now on the table is likely to pull at least some of them away from the six schools it now directly overlaps with in the region.

DON’T MISS MIT SLOAN LAUNCHES EVENING MBA, BEVOMING THE THIRD M7 SCHOOL TO OFFER ONE

© 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.