What It Costs To Get An MBA From A Top Business School

HIGHEST ESTIMATED 2-YEAR COST FOR AN ELITE U.S. MBA 

*MBA1+MBA2.

Source: P&Q analysis

TUITION: 12 OF 27 TOP U.S. B-SCHOOLS CHARGE $80K OR MORE 

Tuition is the biggest chunk of total cost for any MBA program, and here, too, the numbers almost always go up each year. Nearly half of the 27 top U.S. B-schools analyzed by P&Q charge MBA tuition over $80,000: 12, up from seven in 2023 and just four in 2022. The highest tuition this year is at Columbia Business School, which increased its rate to $88,300 from $84,496, or 4.5%. Columbia ranks No. 4 in P&Q‘s annual aggregate ranking.

The highest-ranked B-school whose annual tuition remains below $80K is No. 2 Harvard Business School, which currently charges $76,410; only two other top-10 B-schools are below the $80K threshold. Overall, 19 B-schools out of 27 charge at least $75K, up in one year from 13 schools. The lowest tuition among the schools analyzed by P&Q is at No. 37 Indiana Kelley School of Business, which charges out-of-state residents $55,695 (and Indiana residents significantly less — more on that below). Texas McCombs is close behind at $59,684. They are the only two schools in this analysis that charge below $60K for MBA tuition. (See more about MBA tuition at the top schools on page 2.)

After tuition, living expenses make up the bulk of the rest of the cost of an MBA; but living expenses are an extremely subjective, and very volatile, metric. Five schools currently estimate their students’ living expenses will eclipse $30K annually, up from four in 2023, and 15 estimate over $25K (up from 12). The highest estimate has consistently been at Stanford Graduate School of Business, P&Q‘s No. 1 overall school, which grew its estimate this year by 3% to $39,888; the lowest is at Indiana Kelley, which grew its estimate by under $1,000 to $16,172. (See page 3 for details on MBA living expenses at the top schools.)

And what about the top global B-schools? If you’re thinking you’ll save money by going to Europe, you may be disappointed — but you certainly have more options if you’re looking to spend less than US$200K. More on page 2.

HIGHEST TUITION AT THE TOP U.S. B-SCHOOLS

Source: Business schools

ANNUAL TOTAL COST ESTIMATES GO UP & UP — MOST OF THE TIME

Poets&Quants estimates the two-year total cost of an MBA by adding B-schools’ own calculations of annual total cost for the two most recent years available — in this story, that means MBA1 is 2023 and MBA2 is 2024. By this method we calculate that the current most expensive MBA program is Columbia Business School’s, at $259,316, a total that increased 3.9% from last year. Stanford, unseated from the top spot, is now the second-most expensive at $257,211, up 2.5% from $250,854 in 2023. The rest of the top five is rounded out by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania ($252,192), UCLA Anderson School of Management ($250,278), and New York Stern School of Business ($250,127). These were the same schools that ranked top 5 in our story last year, albeit in different order.

The average two-year cost for a top-10 MBA is an estimated $234,473, down 1% from last year — but for the very obvious reason that P&Q‘s ranking saw a massive shakeup that dropped powerhouses Wharton, Chicago Booth, Northwestern Kellogg, and UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business out of the top 10. If, however, we compare the same 10 schools year to year, the average cost is $245,152, up 3.5% from $236,873 in 2023. See table below.

Virginia Darden School of Business saw the biggest increase year to year in total two-year cost, in both the top 10 and across all 27 schools analyzed by P&Q, up $13,181, or 6.2% to $226,168. Chicago Booth had a noteworthy increase as well, from $237,222 to $248,097, up $10,875, or 4.6%. The average year-to-year increase across the top 10 was $7,582 and 3.4% (last year’s: $6,562 and 2.8%); for the entire group of 27 schools, the average cost is $224,761, up 4.2% from last year — and up 12.6% in four years. See details on page 4.

COMPARING TOTAL COST AT P&Q’S 2023 TOP 10, THEN & NOW

*MBA1+MBA2.

Source: P&Q analysis

ONE-YEAR TOTAL COST RISES 3.9% FROM 2023 TO 2024, 10%+ SINCE 2021

Most B-schools only provide one-year total cost estimates for their MBA programs, with the implication that costs will go up in a year so it’s not accurate to simply double the tuition-plus-room-and-board-plus-fees, etc., to determine two-year total cost. P&Q finds that adding the last two years to reach a projected total is the most accurate method available.

Looking at only the one-year totals that the schools provide, we find that costs don’t always go up at every school. Three schools — USC Marshall School of Business, Emory Goizueta Business School, and Washington-St. Louis Olin Business School — saw their totals decline year-to-year from 2023 to 2024, with Olin’s drop the biggest at -4.1% (to $85,896). Olin, notably, was the only school out of 27 to see its yearly total cost number decline since 2021: It dropped from $87,508 that first full year of the coronavirus pandemic, a decline of 1.8%.

That said, most of the time the numbers do indeed go up — and up and up. Across the P&Q top 10, the smallest increase from 2023 to 2024 was 2.8% at Harvard, to $118,854; over the last four years, the smallest was 4.4% at NYU Stern, to $126,874. The average growth in total cost from 2023 to 2024 is $4,491 and 3.9%; the average from 2021 to 2024 is $10,062 and 9.4%. The average increase for all 27 schools analyzed by P&Q is $4,456 and 4% over two years, with only three schools actually reducing cost in that time; while the average increase over four years is $10,842 and 10.6%, with just one school — Washington Olin in St. Louis — charging less money now than it did then.

More data:

• Biggest top-10 increase over 4 years: Virginia Darden, 16.3% to $117,217
• Biggest top-10 increase over 2 years: Darden, 7.6%
• Smallest increase over 4 years, 27 top schools: Washington Olin, -1.8% to $85,896
• Biggest increase over 4 years, 27 top schools: Rice Jones, 24.3% to $99,529
• Smallest increase over 2 years, 27 top schools: Olin -4.1%
• Biggest increase over 2 years, 27 top schools: MIT Sloan School of Management, 16.1% to $126,744

MIT’s business school is the only one in this story with a double-digit total cost increase from 2023 to 2024. However, 14 out of 27 schools have seen double-digit increases since 2021. See more cost details on page 4.

HIGHEST MBA TOTAL COST FOR 1 YEAR, 2023 TO 2024 

Source: Business schools

WORRIED ABOUT COST? SIMPLY GET A SCHOLARSHIP

Business schools are mindful of the optics involved in charging a quarter of a million dollars (and rising) for two years of MBA education. That’s one reason why they make so many scholarships available. But scholarships and fellowships aren’t the only ways to get the credentials and training you want to spark your career.

Much cheaper, generally, than full-time MBAs are online MBAs and part-time programs, which have the added financial benefit of not requiring students to leave their jobs. Master in management programs, while geared toward younger and less-experienced applicants, have the advantage of taking less time — usually one year — and are increasingly available at U.S. schools in addition to Europe, where they have long proliferated.

But in the final analysis, a full-time MBA is likely to give graduates a bigger leg up than other options. See these stories for details:

RANKING MBAs BY RETURN ON INVESTMENT

THE ROI OF P&Q’S TOP-RANKED BUSINESS SCHOOLS

HIGH & LOW SALARIES AND BONUSES AT THE TOP 100 U.S. B-SCHOOLS

Columbia claimed the distinction of highest tuition in 2024 at $88,300, with MIT Sloan School of Management second at $86,550. Last year’s school with the highest tuition, Wharton, actually lowered its tuition from $87,370 to $84,830, one of only two schools out of 27 to do so.

Indiana Kelley ($55,695) and Washington Foster ($57,831) had the lowest tuition out of 27 schools.

In all, 12 schools are above $80K tuition, up from seven schools last year. As recently as 2021 there were zero schools at that price. Twenty-two schools are above $70K, up from 19 last year (and 13 in 2019), and three schools are below $60K, same as the last two years. In 2019, five schools charged less than $60K for tuition.

No schools kept their tuition flat this year, though that has been common practice for many schools, public and private alike, in recent years. HBS, for example, was flat for five years in a row at $73,440 until 2023; Dartmouth Tuck School of Business was flat at $77,520 for four years until last year; Texas McCombs was flat for three years ($58,270) for out-of-state students until last year. See the table at the bottom of this page for details.

But while no schools kept their tuition unchanged, three — Washington Foster, Michigan Ross School of Business, and Wharton — actually reduced tuition. Only Wharton did so meaningfully however.

Think Europe is a cheaper alternative? You may be right, though the euro has rebounded against the dollar after a mild collapse in 2022. At some European B-schools, you may be able to find a bargain — though you also could end up paying more for that high-end MBA than you would in the United States.

TUITION & COST AT TOP GLOBAL B-SCHOOLS

*Fontainebleau or Singapore

Source: Business schools

AVERAGE ONE-YEAR TUITION GROWTH AT 27 TOP U.S. B-SCHOOLS: 4.2%

From 2023 to today, the biggest increase in tuition occurred at UC-Berkeley Haas, up 11.7% and $8,973 to $85,406. The only other school analyzed by P&Q for this story with double-digit growth year to year was USC Marshall, up 10.2% to $79,893. Average tuition growth for top-10 schools was 3.9% and $3,030, with the highest jump in that group 4.5% at Columbia, from $84,496 to $88,300. The average across 27 schools was 4.2%.

From 2019 to today, the average tuition growth was 11.9% at top-10 schools and 13.7% at 25 of the leading programs. Nineteen schools saw double-digit tuition growth in that span. The smallest was at Michigan Ross, up just 2.8% to $73,030; the biggest was $16,962 and 24.8% at Haas.

Noteworthy is that public schools often charge higher tuition for students who are not residents of the school’s state — sometimes much higher. Indiana Kelley, for example, charges Indiana residents $29,573 and nonresidents $55,695, a difference of $26,122. Likewise, UNC Kenan Flagler Business School charges North Carolina residents $53,776 and nonresidents $71,956, a difference of $18,180; UC-Berkeley charges California residents $73,160 and nonresidents $85,406, a difference of $12,246; and the Ross School charges Michigan residents $78,030 and nonresidents $73,030, a difference of $5K.

TUITION AT THE TOP U.S. B-SCHOOLS, 2019 TO 2024

Source: Business schools & P&Q analysis

Living expenses — food and housing chiefly, though in some cases transportation and other expenses are folded into the mix — are highly subjective, or at least seem so. B-schools doubtless have formulas for calculating them (that they don’t share publicly). The range of annual expenses estimates by the schools analyzed by P&Q for this story is nearly $40K in Palo Alto, California, home of Stanford University, down to less than $17K in Bloomington, Indiana, where IU and the Kelley School of Business reside. And that’s just for single students (more on this below).

Even more wide: the range of expense estimate growth over the past six years, from before the Covid-19 pandemic to 2024. Across 26 schools, estimate adjustments between 2019 and 2024 range from up nearly 50% to down 12%. See the table at the bottom of the page for details.

In 2024, five schools have living expenses estimates above $30K, up from four schools last year; 15 are above $25K, up from 12; and four are below $20K, down from seven. The highest estimate is $39,888 at Stanford and the lowest is $16,172 at Indiana Kelley. The average living expenses estimate for a top-10 B-school is $27,921, up 1.2% from $27,598 last year.

MOST EXPENSIVE PROGRAMS FOR LIVING EXPENSES, 2023 TO 2024

Source: Business schools

WHARTON HAS RAISED ITS LIVING EXPENSES ESTIMATE NEARLY 50% SINCE 2019

From 2023 to 2024, the average increase in living expenses estimate at 22 schools for which we have data to compare is $1,780 and 7.4%. The biggest increase in that time came at Wharton, up $7,776 and 29.9% to $33,804. The smallest was an actual decline, at USC Marshall, which reduced its estimate $1,270 and 4.2% to $29,140. Marshall was the only school to drop its living expenses estimate over two years.

Three schools made no year-to-year adjustment to their estimates: Chicago Booth, Washington Foster School of Business, and Emory Goizueta. This is not uncommon: Kellogg for years left its estimate at $22,185; likewise Booth was stuck for years at $22,185 and Foster at $21,248. Columbia had not adjusted its living expenses estimate in four years before bumping it up this year to $27,396 from $24,822. And while most schools made upward adjustments in 2024, nine of them raised their estimates less than $1K.

Over six years since 2019, the average growth in living expenses estimate is $5,031 and 23.8%. The biggest growth in six years occurred at Wharton, up $11,134 and 49.1% to $33,804. Two schools are down in that span: MIT Sloan and Texas McCombs; the former actually reduced its estimate by nearly 12%, to $23,490, which begs the question: Is Boston really that cheap a place to live?

Not really. According to RentCafe.com, the average monthly rent in Boston is $3,999; multiply that by nine for the nine months of the school year and you get around $36K. You can do similar fun math with the averages in Chicago ($2,349), New York ($4,566), and Los Angeles ($2,719).

Then there is the matter of married versus single student costs. In short, marriage — and children — are costly for an MBA student.

See for example Stanford’s rates: Living expenses for single students are calculated at $39,888, but for married students they jump to $66,348. In other words, the total one-year cost for a married student at Stanford is $157,206, 20% more than the $130,746 for a single student. Harvard, meanwhile, estimates a single student’s food and housing costs at $23,400, a married student’s at $35,010, a married student’s who has one child at $44,856, and a married student’s with two children at $45,990.

It’s not just the M7 schools: Smaller schools do similar adjustments. At Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business, living expenses for a single student are estimated at $14,250, married $16,982, married one kid $20,742, and married 2 kids $24,266. If we double all the 9-month estimates we get cost totals for the two-year MBA journey at:

• Single $223,572
• Married $244,664
• Married 1 kid $264,170
• Married 2 kids $283,996

LIVING EXPENSES AT THE TOP U.S. B-SCHOOLS, 2019 TO 2024

Source: Business schools