The M7, Elite Of The Elite, By The Numbers

MIT Sloan students in class. Courtesy photo

What You Can Expect To Pay — And Get — From An M7 School

An MBA degree from an M7 school is pretty much a sure thing. No one is going to question your decision to go to any of these schools, and very few of the graduates from these institutions regret their choice to attend. But none of this comes cheap.

The highest estimated cost of the MBA degree among these elite schools is at Stanford, where the price tag, including living expenses, is now more than $210,000. Of course, that’s the price before any scholarship grants — and it turns out that even though three M7 schools now cost more than $200,000 to attend, all offer financial help at fairly high levels, with both Harvard and Stanford MBA students receiving an average of more than $35,000 annually, and Wharton and Booth students close behind at $32,000 and $30,000, respectively.

That’s an important part of the financial puzzle to keep in mind when you apply to these schools. Don’t let the sky-high tuition scare you off. In effect, every school has a two-tier pricing structure for the MBA: the full sticker price and the discounted price. Stanford and Harvard claim to only give out money based on need, but all the other schools are using the cash to lure the best qualified applicants to their programs.