How Much is a Top MBA Program Worth?

How much will a top MBA program set you back, and how much will it pay off?

The latest in MBA news: From a steady rise in business schools that accept GRE scores instead of GMAT scores, to the top MBA programs that will prime you for the big bucks, here’s this week’s MBA news and headlines, helping you navigate the business school application process.

GRE or GMAT?

Acceptance of the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT among American business schools has reached an all time high, according to Kaplan Test Prep’s 2014 survey of business school admissions officers.

The survey shows that 85% of MBA programs now give students the option of submitting GRE scores (historically the admissions exam for non-business graduate programs) instead of GMAT scores. This percentage has steadily increased every year since Kaplan first began tracking the issue in 2009, when just a quarter of b-schools reported accepting the GRE as an alternative.

The caveat: Only a trickle of MBA applicants are actually submitting their GRE scores instead of GMAT scores. Over half of the admissions officers surveyed said that just one in ten or fewer applicants took this admissions path last application cycle, representing a slight uptick from Kaplan’s past surveys.

Kaplan’s advice: If all of your prospective business schools accept the GRE in addition to the GMAT, then contact those programs to find out if they have a preference for one exam over the other. We also advise students to take the GMAT if some of the schools to which they plan on applying do not accept the GRE. Yes, the GRE is widely accepted, but the only exam that is universally accepted is the GMAT. (Bloomberg BusinessWeek – and check out how TopMBA.com and Poets & Quants are covering this big news too.)

Your business school dollar at work

Let’s face it, MBA applicants, money isn’t everything, but it’s something. And you aren’t planning on working for free. According to a new report released a few days ago by PayScale, when ranked by median mid-career pay, the top MBA programs are Stanford, Harvard Business School, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Berkeley. (The Washington Post)

How high should you aim for your MBA program?

Want to make it into the boardroom? Then going to business school is still your best route—but it might matter less which business school you actually graduate from. According to a new study at the Harvard Business Review, about a third of the CEOs leading the world’s best-performing public companies have their MBAs. Harvard produced the most CEOs in the study—seven—and the list is dominated by top MBA programs in US-based business schools.

But the study also found that just 13 of the 29 leaders have MBAs from the top-ten ranked schools, intimating that it may matter less which business school you attend when climbing the corporate ladder. That said, getting your business school degree from a top MBA program can’t hurt. (BusinessBecause)

Short-term costs for top MBA programs

We all know that, as a long-term investment, getting your MBA is usually well worth it. But what about the short-term? It’s common for business school students to pay more than $50,000 for a two-year program, but out-of-state students at some public business schools may pay that price (or more) for just one year.

Example: At the excellent University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, out-of-state students paid $57,394.  Here you’ll find a list of the 10 MBA programs where out-of-state students paid the most in tuition and fees during in the most recent academic year. (U.S. News & World Report)

What issues on the MBA landscape are you talking about? Share your comments with your fellow aspiring MBAs below, on Facebook, and on Twitter; then visitkaplan.com/unlock for a chance to win 10K in Kaplan’s Good Life Sweeptstakes! 

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