Total Cost At The Top 30 MBA Programs In The U.S.

THE $100K-A-YEAR MBA IS NOW THE NORM

MIT Sloan now has the highest estimated one-year cost in the top 30 U.S. MBAs at $144,325. It is followed by Columbia Business School at $143,030, Stanford GSB at $140,940, and NYU Stern at $140,668. UCLA Anderson and UC-Berkeley Haas are both approaching $140,000 as well.

Of the 26 schools for which comparable 2025 figures are available, 25 increased their estimated annual cost this year; only Texas McCombs was flat.

The longer view shows how dramatically the MBA price tag has shifted. In 2021, Harvard estimated one year at $112,764; today it is $130,318. Columbia has gone from $118,777 to $143,030, Darden from $100,778 to $123,196, and Stanford from $119,964 to $140,940.

At the other end of the table, a handful of programs still offer a substantially lower sticker price. Georgia Terry comes in at an estimated $63,756 for one year, Georgia Tech Scheller at $70,352, and Texas McCombs at $85,889. The spread between the least and most expensive programs in the Top 30 is now more than $80,000 for a single year.

MBA One-Year Estimated Cost At The Top 30 U.S. Business Schools, 2021-2026
P&Q 2026 Rank	School	2026 Estimated One-Year Cost	2025 Estimated One-Year Cost	2-Year Change – Annual Total Cost	2-Year %	2024 Estimated One-Year Cost	2023 Estimated One-Year Cost	2022 Estimated One-Year Cost	2021 Estimated One-Year Cost
1	Northwestern (Kellogg)	$130,072	$128,852	$1,220	0.95%	$‎ 125,191	$‎ 120,432	$‎ 117,259	$‎ 111,658
2	Harvard Business School	$130,318	$126,536	$3,782	2.99%	$‎ 118,854	$‎ 115,638	$‎ 112,306	$‎ 112,764
3	Columbia Business School	$143,030	$137,571	$5,459	3.97%	$‎ 132,258	$‎ 127,058	$‎ 122,460	$‎ 118,777
4	Dartmouth (Tuck)	$135,331	$129,936	$5,395	4.15%	$‎ 124,514	$‎ 120,004	$‎ 117,575	$‎ 118,815
5	Virginia (Darden)	$123,196	$121,275	$1,921	1.58%	$‎ 117,217	$‎ 108,951	$‎ 104,036	$‎ 100,778
6	New York (Stern)	$140,668	$135,840	$4,828	3.55%	$‎ 126,874	$‎ 123,253	$‎ 121,525	$‎ 121,541
7	Cornell (Johnson)	$127,278	$119,994	$7,284	6.07%	$‎ 111,436	$‎ 107,211	$‎ 107,622	$‎ 101,685
8	Pennsylvania (Wharton)	$135,441	$132,404	$3,037	2.29%	$‎ 127,716	$‎ 124,476	$‎ 118,568	$‎ 115,464
9	Michigan (Ross)	$116,300	$111,725	$4,575	4.09%	$‎ 102,984	$‎ 99,780	$‎ 99,949	$‎ 97,566
10	UCLA (Anderson)	$137,951	$131,661	$6,290	4.78%	$‎ 128,687	$‎ 121,591	$‎ 117,398	$‎ 113,893
11	MIT (Sloan)	$144,325	$129,084	$15,241	11.81%	$‎ 126,744	$‎ 109,180	$‎ 119,995	$‎ 117,998
12	Chicago (Booth)	$132,449	$129,403	$3,046	2.35%	$‎ 125,937	$‎ 122,160	$‎ 115,062	$‎ 111,855
13	Texas-Austin (McCombs)	$85,889	$85,889	$0	0.00%	$‎ 84,605	$‎ 82,738	$‎ 81,128	$‎ 80,324
14	UC-Berkeley (Haas)	$138,921	$133,655	$5,266	3.94%	$‎ 124,041	$‎ 116,178	$‎ 115,931	$‎ 110,595
15	Duke (Fuqua)	$118,974	$114,952	$4,022	3.50%	$‎ 110,826	$‎ 106,735	$‎ 100,269	$‎ 97,554
16	Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	$120,798	$116,428	$4,370	3.75%	$‎ 111,786	$‎ 107,084	$‎ 101,922	$‎ 97,929
17	Yale SOM	$128,976	$123,936	$5,040	4.07%	$‎ 119,110	$‎ 114,816	$‎ 108,780	$‎ 104,752
18	Vanderbilt (Owen)	$113,537	$111,149	$2,388	2.15%	$‎ 107,172	$‎ 106,909	$‎ 96,155	$‎ 93,751
19	Washington (Olin)	$102,180	$96,970	$5,210	5.37%	$‎ 96,920	$‎ 89,740	$‎ 87,508	$‎ 87,508
20	Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller)	$70,352	$67,496	$2,856	4.23%	$‎ 65,654	$‎ 61,968	$‎ 61,480	$‎ 62,072
21	North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	$103,612	$102,960	$652	0.63%	$‎ 102,414	$‎ 99,928	$‎ 96,676	$‎ 94,632
22	Emory (Goizueta)	$120,096	$115,723	$4,373	3.78%	$‎ 102,931	$‎ 104,775	$‎ 94,934	$‎ 95,475
23	Washington (Foster)	$102,473	NA	NA	NA	$‎ 115,662	$‎ 115,692	$‎ 112,254	$‎ 107,202
24	Southern California (Marshall)	$126,523	NA	NA	NA	$‎ 89,769	NA	NA	NA
25	Georgetown (McDonough)	$115,171	$111,487	$3,684	3.30%	$‎ 106,781	$‎ 103,513	$‎ 94,934	$‎ 95,475
26	Stanford GSB	$140,940	$135,771	$5,169	3.81%	$‎ 130,746	$‎ 126,465	$‎ 124,389	$‎ 119,964
27	Rice (Jones)	$100,239	$97,123	$3,116	3.21%	$‎ 99,529	$‎ 96,260	$‎ 90,537	$‎ 80,090
28	Notre Dame (Mendoza)	$107,800	$103,925	$3,875	3.73%	$‎ 100,366	$‎ 92,000	$‎ 83,160	$‎ 80,390
29	Georgia (Terry)	$63,756	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
30	Rochester (Simon)	$90,959	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

DON’T MISS: ACCEPTANCE RATES, YIELD & APPS AT THE TOP 100 U.S. MBA PROGRAMS and THE M7 BY THE NUMBERS 2026: WHAT IT TAKES TO GET ADMITTED TO H-S-W PLUS

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