For This Year’s MBA Admits, It’s A Buyer’s Market

Applications to MBA Programs at many of the highest ranked business schools are down again this year, even as scholarship awards for admits and starting salaries for MBA graduates are at record levels.

Most schools closed off their third and final application rounds earlier this month with drops in application volume ranging between 5% and double digits.

The decline, moreover, is on top of last year’s plunge in applications which hit the top-ranked schools for the first time. What does it all mean for this year’s crop of MBA applicants? To put it simply, It’s a buyers’ market.

Well qualified applicants are racking up more admit offers than normal and more scholarship dollars are flowing to entice admits to take up those offers than ever before. 

• This year’s drop, moreover, is the second consecutive year of down numbers for even the highest ranked MBA programs. 
• Last year, the so-called M7 schools, which include those three plus Booth, Kellogg, MIT Sloan, and Columbia, saw a combined 4.7% drop. Hardest hit for the 2017-2018 admissions cycle? Chicago Booth which saw an application falloff of 8.7%.
• Schools ranked from tenth to 25th suffered twice the decline in MBA applications in 2017-2018 than those in the Top Ten. All together, the Top Ten MBA programs experienced a 4.9% fall in applications; the next 15 ranked business schools saw their applications decline by 9.7%

In all, 70% of U.S. business schools reported declines in their MBA applications last year, according to a survey of the schools by the Graduate Management Admission Council. According to GMAC, U.S. business schools experienced a nearly 7% decline in app volume, including a 1.8% decline in domestic applications and a 10.5% drop in international volume across all program types.

The decline in applicant volumes will certainly lead to higher admit rates at most schools, but at least for us, the pool is deep enough that we feel reasonably confident about maintaining quality. 

There are many reasons for the continued decline in applications to MBA programs, ranging from a strong economy which keeps people in their current jobs to the rising price tags on many MBA programs with little transparency over the discounts in tuition through scholarships.

The Most Affordable Top MBA Programs

The most affordable top-50 MBA degree in the United States is available at Purdue University's Krannert School of Management, with a two-year total cost — including room and board and other expenses — of around $65,000. Only five schools in the top 50 carry 2-year MBA price tags of less than $100K.

School & P&Q Rank	2-Year Tuition	2-Year Room & Board	2-Year Total	Average Indebtedness (Class of 2018)	Percentage With Debt (Class of 2018)
38. Purdue (Krannert)	$39,532	$26,060	$65,592	$63,261	45%
34. BYU (Marriott)*	$26,900	$42,672	$69,572	NA	NA
45. Texas-Dallas (Jindal)	$57,000	$32,000	$89,000	$28,106	32%
47. Florida (Hough)	$60,260	$35,360	$95,620	$37,035	48%
44. Pittsburgh (Katz)	$63,916	$36,034	$99,950	NA	NA
43. Georgia (Terry)	$64,224	$43,748	$107,972	$36,603	40%
33. Wisconsin	$77,554	$37,236	$114,790	$25,737	25%
27. Georgia Tech (Scheller)	$80,360	$37,472	$117,832	NA	NA
46. Texas A&M (Mays)	$76,606	$46,076	$122,682	NA	NA
39. Rochester (Simon)	$92,000	$35,530	$127,530	$40,864	72%
32. Penn State (Smeal)	$84,936	$43,900	$128,836	$40,122	27%
30. Minnesota (Carlson)	$99,888	$34,000	$133,888	$58,165	48%
31. Arizona State (Carey)	$94,396	$39,656	$134,052	$30,217	40%
41. SMU (Cox)	$91,950	$42,970	$134,920	NA	NA
25. Indiana (Kelley)	$99,910	$38,000	$137,910	$57,079	92%
36. Ohio State (Fisher)	$105,248	$34,768	$140,016	$49,781	39%
35. Michigan State (Broad)	$100,880	$42,800	$143,680	$51,988	47%
50. Rutgers	$93,480	$53,000	$146,480	NA	NA
18. Texas-Austin (McCombs)	$108,788	$38,120	$146,908	$84,043	47%
42. Boston (Questrom)	$107,988	$39,038	$147,026	NA	44%
48. Boston College (Carroll)	$102,400	$46,670	$149,070	$63,081	45%
49. UC-Davis	$99,370	$50,016	$149,386	$67,972	37%
29. Notre Dame (Mendoza)	$108,240	$41,300	$149,540	$64,529	54%
21. Washington (Foster)	$100,092	$60,992	$161,084	$28,968	45%

Lowest-Paid MBAs In The P&Q Top 25

School & P&Q Rank	Low U.S. Salary	Low Foreign Salary	Total Reporting Base Salary	Low U.S. Sign-On	Low Foreign Sign-On	Total Reporting Sign-On Bonus
1. Harvard Business School	$41,875	$57,324	85.9%	$1,000	$2,000	58.3%
8. UC-Berkeley (Haas)	$46,800	$70,000	90.8%	$2,000	$5,000	63.3%
6. MIT (Sloan)	$50,000	NA	91.9%	$5,000	NA	65.1%
20. Emory (Goizueta)	$55,000	$40,000	85.0%	$8,000	$5,000	70.0%
19. UNC (Kenan-Flagler)	$55,000	$65,000	83.8%	$5,000	$5,000	68.8%
25. Indiana (Kelley)	$55,000	$20,000	85.6%	$5,000	$5,000	67.5%
18. Texas-Austin (McCombs)	$55,000	$51,816	83.9%	$5,000	$8,000	63.7%
11. Yale SOM	$55,000	$52,000	85.9%	$3,000	$5,000	59.2%
7. Columbia	$55,000	$52,000	76.9%	$3,000	$5,000	50.9%
17. CMU (Tepper)	$56,000	$60,000	87.0%	$5,000	$5,000	69.4%
21. Washington (Foster)	$60,000	$54,989	89.3%	$3,000	$3,500	67.9%
15. UCLA (Anderson)	$60,000	$52,000	84.8%	$5,000	$1,598	60.0%
23. Georgetown (McDonough)	$60,000	$45,000	78.3%	$1,000	$10,000	56.2%
24. Rice (Jones)	$69,992	$70,000	94.5%	$3,000	$5,000	61.5%
13. Cornell (Johnson)	$70,000	$35,000	83.6%	$2,500	$5,000	70.3%
4. Chicago (Booth)	$70,000	$53,000	87.3%	$5,000	$3,500	60.2%
3. Stanford GSB	$70,000	$48,000	74.1%	$5,000	$5,000	40.8%
1. Penn (Wharton)	$73,000	$15,910	80.3%	$40	$2,000	59.7%
14. Duke (Fuqua)	$75,000	$50,000	87.5%	$5,000	$4,200	71.8%
10. Michigan (Ross)	$80,000	$70,000	88.2%	$5,000	$8,000	79.7%
16. NYU (Stern)	$80,000	$70,000	89.7%	$2,500	$2,000	75.4%
22. USC (Marshall)	$80,000	$90,000	78.0%	$2,000	$3,000	67.9%
5. Northwestern (Kellogg)	$80,000	$23,282	84.2%	$3,000	$4,500	63.4%
9. Dartmouth (Tuck)	$87,000	$60,000	83.8%	$3,000	$3,000	72.5%
12. Virginia (Darden)	$39,465*	$39,465*	88.2%	$3,500	$10,000	82.0%

Highest-Paid MBAs At The P&Q Top 25

School & P&Q Rank	High U.S. Salary	Average U.S. Salary	High U.S. Sign-On	High Foreign Salary	Average Foreign Salary	High Foreign Sign-On
1. Penn (Wharton)	$350,000	$142,286	$250,000	$246,525	$132,793	$150,000
1. Harvard Business School	$300,000	$140,849	$75,000	$250,000	$136,194	$80,000
3. Stanford GSB	$300,000	$150,123	$100,000	$225,000	$131,697	$145,000
4. Chicago (Booth)	$250,000	$134,371	$150,000	$200,000	$126,904	$130,000
6. MIT (Sloan)	$250,000	$135,105	$100,000	NA	NA	NA
10. Michigan (Ross)	$243,000	$127,787	$80,000	$170,000	$123,046	$80,000
5. Northwestern (Kellogg)	$225,000	$132,249	$82,500	$170,000	$119,576	$70,000
9. Dartmouth (Tuck)	$215,000	$131,870	$152,500	$159,000	$125,600	$105,000
7. Columbia	$210,000	$131,210	$130,000	$308,000	$130,400	$90,000
16. NYU (Stern)	$200,000	$129,815	$100,000	$180,000	$125,984	$90,000
8. UC-Berkeley (Haas)	$200,000	$130,350	$90,000	$180,000	$122,855	$100,000
12. Virginia (Darden)	$200,000*	$127,767*	$180,000	$200,000*	$127,767*	$100,000
18. Texas-Austin (McCombs)	$195,000	$120,282	$90,000	$152,000	$114,257	$90,000
11. Yale SOM	$190,000	$127,449	$90,000	$170,000	$124,176	$95,000
13. Cornell (Johnson)	$190,000	$128,882	$92,500	$180,000	$120,153	$100,000
14. Duke (Fuqua)	$190,000	$129,512	$90,000	$180,000	$124,657	$100,000
23. Georgetown (McDonough)	$180,000	$118,528	$90,000	$170,000	$108,876	$90,000
24. Rice (Jones)	$175,000	$114,856	$70,000	$150,000	$108,429	$50,000
15. UCLA (Anderson)	$170,000	$123,678	$75,000	$152,500	$117,793	$78,000
17. CMU (Tepper)	$165,000	$120,848	$90,000	$147,000	$119,341	$100,000
22. USC (Marshall)	$152,500	$123,570	$90,000	$152,500	$103,791	$90,000
19. UNC (Kenan-Flagler)	$152,500	$117,085	$95,000	$152,500	$114,849	$90,000
21. Washington (Foster)	$152,500	$118,263	$103,000	$160,000	$118,558	$100,000
20. Emory (Goizueta)	$152,000	$121,708	$90,000	$150,000	$117,326	$100,000
25. Indiana (Kelley)	$150,000	$111,640	$58,500	$145,000	$99,108	$35,000

* Darden provided only overall salary and bonus figures.

Chart: Poets&Quants Source: School data reported to U.S. News Get the data Created with Datawrapper

The Highest & Lowest Paid MBAs At The Top 25 Schools

 

Last year a student from the United States working in finance in the Northeast — probably New York City — achieved a salary of $350,000 after graduating from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. One of his colleagues, an American working internationally, also reported a base salary of $350K.

• Wharton reported the highest base salary for a U.S. citizen — that Northeast-bound financier who scored a $350K — while Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business were close behind, each with a domestic $300K earner of their own. 
• Columbia Business School boasted the highest starting salary for an international student at $308,000. 
• In sign-on bonuses, Wharton again paced the pack for both U.S. ($250,000) and foreign nationals ($150,000). 
• Just a few years ago, someone in the HBS Class of 2016 secured a starting base salary of half a million dollars, while someone at Stanford reported a salary of $450,000.
• The highest U.S. average salary was at Stanford, where U.S. grads reported a base salary of $150,123.  The highest average pay for international grads was at HBS: $136,194.
• Once again, U.S. salaries outpace those of their international classmates, with the overall U.S. average of the 25 schools about $7,000 more than the average for foreign national grads: $127,603 to $120,589. Looking only at the top 10 schools, the U.S. was about $8,000 ahead: $135,620 to internationals’ $127,674.
• The school with the highest percentage reporting salary numbers in 2018 was Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, No. 24 on the P&Q ranking, where 94.5% reported — 86 students out of 91 known to be looking for work. 
• Close behind were No. 6 MIT Sloan (91.9%) and No. 8 UC-Berkeley Haas (90.8%). Stanford actually had the lowest percentage of salary reporters: 74.1%, or 218 grads out of 294 on the market.

Besides highs and averages, U.S. News also reports lows. 

• The lowest reported salary for a U.S. MBA in the Class of 2018 was at Harvard, where someone took a job for the base pay of $41,875. 
• For an international student, the lowest base pay was reported by a Whartonite who was hired for $15,910; the job, categorized as both financial services and “other,” took him or her outside the U.S.
• The lowest sign-on bonus for an international student was reported by a UCLA Anderson grad: $1,598. And then for a low bonus accepted by a U.S. student, we return to the question of the $40. Were they paid by check or two bills out of the boss’s wallet? We may never know.
• Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business swept a host of interesting “lows”: lowest high U.S. salary ($150K), lowest average U.S. salary ($111,640), lowest high U.S. sign-on ($58,500), lowest high foreign salary ($145K), and lowest high foreign sign-on ($35K). The Hoosiers’ $99,108 average foreign salary, another low, was the only non-six-figure salary for any top-25 school in either the U.S. or foreign column.
• The highest low U.S. salary was at Dartmouth Tuck ($87K), though four schools — Northwestern Kellogg, USC Marshall, Michigan Ross, and NYU Stern — were close behind at $80K. USC claimed the highest low foreign salary: $90K. Emory Goizueta ($8K) had the highest low U.S. sign-on and Virginia Darden and Georgetown McDonough ($10K) shared the distinction of reporting the highest low foreign sign-on.

Core Metrics Of The P&Q Top 25

School & P&Q Rank	GMAT	GPA	Accept Rate	Pay (Salary + Bonus)	Jobs at Grad	Jobs at 3 Months
1. Harvard Business School	731	3.71	10.4%	$159,314	79.1%	89.3%
1. Penn (Wharton)	732	3.60	20.7%	$165,528	83.6%	94.6%
3. Stanford GSB	732	3.73	6.1%	$162,704	68.7%	88.1%
4. Chicago (Booth)	731	3.58	22.9%	$154,722	87.6%	95.5%
5. Northwestern (Kellogg)	732	3.60	21.9%	$151,605	80.4%	92.0%
6. MIT (Sloan)	728	3.57	13.1%	$159,245	86.0%	93.5%
7. Columbia	736	3.60	14.5%	$153,351	75.0%	90.1%
8. UC-Berkeley (Haas)	726	3.67	15.4%	$147,921	75.5%	93.4%
9. Dartmouth (Tuck)	722	3.49	23.3%	$157,821	80.6%	91.9%
10. Michigan (Ross)	720	3.48	27.1%	$156,163	89.3%	93.5%
11. Yale SOM	724	3.67	20.4%	$149,964	77.1%	89.8%
12. Virginia (Darden)	718	3.50	32.9%	$160,711	87.3%	92.3%
13. Cornell (Johnson)	699	3.41	33.1%	$154,533	79.7%	91.0%
14. Duke (Fuqua)	704	3.49	22.4%	$155,129	85.4%	94.0%
15. UCLA (Anderson)	716	3.52	24.3%	$142,997	69.7%	88.7%
16. NYU (Stern)	716	3.45	23.2%	$159,021	83.7%	93.7%
17. CMU (Tepper)	690	3.40	35.4%	$145,566	81.9%	89.6%
18. Texas-Austin (McCombs)	702	3.48	33.6%	$141,771	75.0%	85.9%
19. UNC (Kenan-Flagler)	702	3.34	46.6%	$139,627	80.5%	92.1%
20. Emory (Goizueta)	686	3.30	40.8%	$145,815	80.0%	92.9%
21. Washington (Foster)	696	3.31	35.1%	$147,763	83.9%	99.1%
22. USC (Marshall)	705	3.50	28.2%	$151,408	79.2%	95.8%
23. Georgetown (McDonough)	693	3.34	55.2%	$139,215	63.7%	93.8%
24. Rice (Jones)	706	3.32	39.7%	$129,950	73.6%	94.5%
25. Indiana (Kelley)	675	3.33	38.3%	$125,929	75.6%	95.0%

The Most Affordable Top MBA Programs

The most affordable of all the top 50 MBA programs in the U.S.: Purdue Krannert, where two years of graduate business education will cost you around $65,000. Purdue photo

The most affordable MBA is Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management, where a two-year degree can be had for the low, low price of $65,592. That’s an estimate based on Purdue’s annual tuition at just $19,766 annually and its “cost of living” — room, board, books, and miscellaneous expenses, but not, critically, fees — at a mere $13,030 per year.

Altogether, Purdue and the next four schools down the list make up a key group: the only five schools out of 50 with a total two-year cost of under $100,000. After the Krannert School, Brigham Young University takes second place, with a total cost of $69,572, but also with a big asterisk: the Marriott School of Business’ annual tuition of $13,450, lowest on record for the top 50, is available only to members of the Mormon church. There are no such restrictions, however, at the next most-affordable MBA programs: the University of Texas-Dallas Jindal School of Management ($89,000), the University of Florida’s Hough Graduate School of Business ($95,620), and the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business ($99,950). (Non-LDS members pay a two-year MBA tuition of $52,240, according to BYU Marriott’s website, bringing its total two-year cost to $94,912 — still third place on the Most Affordable list.) 

Acceptance rates are fairly high at all four: 49.4% at Purdue, 52.7% at BYU, 35.1% at Texas-Dallas, 18.8% at Florida, and 34.0% at Pittsburgh Katz. That averages out to 38%.

Only three schools ranked by P&Q in the top 25 find their way into the “bottom” 20 for cost: No. 24 Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business is eighth overall at $116,530; No. 25 Indiana University Kelley School of Business is 16th overall at $137,910; and No. 18 Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business is 20th, at $146,908.

School & P&Q Rank	2-Year Tuition	2-Year Room & Board	2-Year Total	Average Indebtedness (Class of 2018)	Percentage With Debt (Class of 2018)
38. Purdue (Krannert)	$39,532	$26,060	$65,592	$63,261	45%
34. BYU (Marriott)*	$26,900	$42,672	$69,572	NA	NA
45. Texas-Dallas (Jindal)	$57,000	$32,000	$89,000	$28,106	32%
47. Florida (Hough)	$60,260	$35,360	$95,620	$37,035	48%
44. Pittsburgh (Katz)	$63,916	$36,034	$99,950	NA	NA
43. Georgia (Terry)	$64,224	$43,748	$107,972	$36,603	40%
33. Wisconsin	$77,554	$37,236	$114,790	$25,737	25%
27. Georgia Tech (Scheller)	$80,360	$37,472	$117,832	NA	NA
46. Texas A&M (Mays)	$76,606	$46,076	$122,682	NA	NA
39. Rochester (Simon)	$92,000	$35,530	$127,530	$40,864	72%
32. Penn State (Smeal)	$84,936	$43,900	$128,836	$40,122	27%
30. Minnesota (Carlson)	$99,888	$34,000	$133,888	$58,165	48%
31. Arizona State (Carey)	$94,396	$39,656	$134,052	$30,217	40%
41. SMU (Cox)	$91,950	$42,970	$134,920	NA	NA
25. Indiana (Kelley)	$99,910	$38,000	$137,910	$57,079	92%
36. Ohio State (Fisher)	$105,248	$34,768	$140,016	$49,781	39%
35. Michigan State (Broad)	$100,880	$42,800	$143,680	$51,988	47%
50. Rutgers	$93,480	$53,000	$146,480	NA	NA
18. Texas-Austin (McCombs)	$108,788	$38,120	$146,908	$84,043	47%
42. Boston (Questrom)	$107,988	$39,038	$147,026	NA	44%
48. Boston College (Carroll)	$102,400	$46,670	$149,070	$63,081	45%
49. UC-Davis	$99,370	$50,016	$149,386	$67,972	37%
29. Notre Dame (Mendoza)	$108,240	$41,300	$149,540	$64,529	54%
21. Washington (Foster)	$100,092	$60,992	$161,084	$28,968	45%