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Getting an MBA can be a costly investment. But the amount of debt graduates have may depend largely on the business school they attend.
Among the 86 ranked MBA programs that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey, 2016 graduates owed an average of $54,792 for business school. Among the 10 schools where graduates on average borrowed the most, that figure was $106,987.
[Discover five signs you’re ready to apply to an MBA program.]
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, where half of 2016 graduates left with debt, tops the list. On average, they owed $121,822.
Nine of the 10 MBA programs where grads who borrowed had the highest average debt rank within the top 25 in U.S. News’ 2018 Best Business Schools rankings. The exception is the University of San Francisco, which falls into the category of Rank Not Published, meaning it placed in the bottom one-fourth of its category.
And three of the schools on the list — the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and Yale University — are among the 11 schools, including ties, where the highest percentage of 2016 grads borrowed to pay for their MBA.
[Follow 10 steps to apply to an MBA program.]
When it comes to average indebtedness, there are plenty of schools that fall on the opposite end of the spectrum. At the University of Texas–Dallas, for instance, 2016 grads on average owed just $7,132.
Below is a list of the 10 MBA programs where full-time 2016 graduates on average had the most debt. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School (name) (state) | Average MBA program indebtedness | Percentage of full-time 2016 graduates with debt | U.S. News b-school rank |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) | $121,822 | 50% | 4 (tie) |
| University of San Francisco | $116,454 | 44% | RNP |
| New York University (Stern) | $115,861 | 48% | 12 (tie) |
| Duke University (Fuqua) (NC) | $109,960 | 60% | 12 (tie) |
| Yale University (CT) | $107,339 | 61% | 9 (tie) |
| University of Virginia (Darden) | $106,710 | 62% | 14 |
| University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (Ross) | $102,665 | 45% | 11 |
| Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) (PA) | $101,667 | 53% | 19 |
| University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) | $95,582 | 62% | 18 |
| Vanderbilt University (Owen) (TN) | $91,813 | 48% | 25 (tie) |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Business School Compass to find debt data, complete rankings and much more.
U.S. News surveyed 471 schools for our 2016 survey of business programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Business Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The indebtedness data above are correct as of Sept. 5, 2017.
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10 MBA Programs Where Grads Have the Most Debt originally appeared on usnews.com
