What It Costs To Get An MBA From A Top Business School (2024)

If you want an elite two-year MBA from a top business school in the United States, and you don’t want to pay in excess of $200,000 for the privilege, you have very few options — and those options are dwindling every year.

Twenty-two U.S. B-schools in charge admits to their full-time MBA programs at least $100K annually, according to a P&Q analysis, up from 19 schools at this time last year. In 2022, there were 15 B-schools whose MBAs cost that much; in 2018, there were only nine. The five most expensive MBAs in the U.S. carry price tags of more than a quarter million dollars.

The only top-25 B-schools where an MBA can be earned for less than $200K over two years — a tally that includes tuition, living expenses and fees — are both in the same state: Texas. No. 18 Rice Jones Graduate School of Business carries an estimated two-year price tag of $195,789, while the full MBA experience at No. 19 Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business costs approximately $167,343.

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 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

See the next page for a tuition breakdown at the top U.S. & global business schools.