10 Reasons to Get an MBA

Starting salaries for MBA graduates are $50,000 higher than those offered to bachelor’s graduates, according to GMAC’s 2024 Corporate Recruits survey.

The median starting salary being offered to MBA new hires in the U.S. last year was $120,000, according to the same GMAC survey, although steady salaries coupled with inflation meant a relative decline in earnings, according to the report.

That potential for an increased starting salary can mean a decent return on investment, with BestColleges reporting that the average total cost of an MBA is roughly $55,200 for a two-year program.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also projects that management occupations will grow by 8% between 2021 and 2031, with the median annual wage for those occupations being $116,880 as of May 2023.

With a robust network of fellow MBA grads and specialized coursework to help professionals find their niche, MBA graduates are well positioned to land jobs once they earn their degrees.

The vast majority of corporate recruits and staffing firms surveyed in the Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2024 Corporate Recruiters survey said they planned to hire new MBA graduates.

That commitment translates into real-world results: 86% of 2022 business graduates had landed a job at the time of their graduation, according to another GMAC survey, up from 80% in 2021.

“With the volatile economic conditions and organizational challenges brought on by the pandemic, well-rounded and prepared business leaders and managers are especially in demand in the current job market,” Matt Hazenbush, director of research analysis and communications at GMAC, said in a release at the time.

“As the survey findings suggest, graduate management education provides students with a powerful leg up for their career.”

Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.

Graduate business degree alumni overwhelmingly said in a 2021 GMAC survey that their degree increased their employability and earning power — and said their degree was “a catalyst for reaching their specific career outcomes.”

MBA programs often focus on managerial and leadership skills in their core content. Students are trained in how to manage employees and boost outcomes for businesses, which are key skills that can unlock paths toward a wide range of leadership roles.

Top MBA jobs include chief executives, general managers, project managers, and other high-paying leadership positions. Although an MBA isn’t a requirement for those positions, the leadership-focused degree can help students attain those top-level positions.

Alongside CEOs, you may start to see chief climate officers, chief sustainability officers, and even chief artificial intelligence (AI) officers charting a path forward for top U.S. and international companies.

As corporations increasingly adopt sustainable business practices and adapt to an ever-changing tech landscape, demand for relevant degrees in those fields has skyrocketed.

Schools are stepping up to meet that demand: Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business announced in April that it plans to revamp its curriculum to focus on data-driven decision-making and experiential learning, as well as highlight social inequities and environmental justice, BestColleges previously reported.

That shift comes as businesses increasingly wrangle with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and increased consumer expectations around environmental stewardship.

Other schools are taking a more novel approach to sustainability: The Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the Doerr School of Sustainability announced a new “ecopreneurship” program in May 2023 that will focus heavily on hands-on learning to equip students to navigate a climate-focused business world.

The cost of an MBA at a top-tier program is significant, with elite schools costing nearly $120,000 a year — but there are also affordable options at state schools and universities that offer online degrees.

Part-time online programs cost $14,500 per year on average, a cost that is significantly lower than the high tuition and fees at elite universities. The average annual cost of an MBA program is roughly $27,600 a year, and full-time, in-person programs cost $43,400 a year on average.

Although part-time, asynchronous MBAs take longer to complete than intensive, accelerated in-person programs, those more affordable degrees may pay off in the long term. The average MBA degree-holder salary was $95,000 in April 2023.

Business school is more than just a place to select a specialization and burn through the curriculum. The Princeton Review reported that the professional network that students build with other students during an MBA program can be as valuable as the degree itself.

A 2022 GMAC report found that 76% of graduate business degree-holders surveyed said their degree helped them develop their professional network. Students also said the degree helped prepare them to work in culturally diverse organizations.

Many MBA programs are adopting concentrations in fast-growing industries. At Florida International University (FIU), for example, MBA students will soon be able to focus on cybersecurity risk management. The school adopted the cybersecurity concentration as businesses scramble with a nationwide shortage of cybersecurity professionals.

Cybersecurity isn’t the only rapidly growing field that business schools are integrating into their MBA concentrations. The Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management’s “MBAi” program features courses on both business management and machine learning to help students grapple with the rapidly changing world of artificial intelligence.

Other schools are adopting concentrations with a focus on sustainability, climate change, data analysis, and other hot-button fields that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will grow exponentially over the next decade.

The number of fully online MBA programs has skyrocketed in recent years, BestColleges reported, and demand for flexible learning options was on the rise even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The University of Illinois, for example, now offers a fully online MBA program through Coursera. Other universities with fully online MBA programs include the University of North Carolina; the University of California, Davis; and the University of Dayton.

Employers largely believed that online learning was of equal quality to traditional brick-and-mortar methods of learning, according to a Northeastern University survey.

In addition to the growing focus on asynchronous, online learning formats, many schools offer an MBA format geared toward students who are already well into their careers and need to keep working while studying: the executive MBA.

According to Quantic, the average executive MBA student has eight years of experience and is between 32 and 44 years old. Executive MBA programs typically include intensive classes outside of regular business hours and small cohorts to give students a condensed, focused degree program without sacrificing their jobs.

The average MBA costs about $27,600 a year, or roughly $55,200 for a full program, BestColleges previously reported. Top-ranked private school programs can cost much more.

Despite that expense, some companies help pay for their employees’ MBA programs with tuition reimbursement. Requirements vary between companies, with some businesses requiring people to be employed for a number of years before becoming eligible for educational benefits.

Some companies that help pay for employees’ MBAs include Google, Home Depot, UPS, BP, and Qualcomm.