Most Affordable Online MBA Programs (AACSB-Accredited)
March 10, 2021
You don't have to drop six figures and accrue a mountain of debt to earn an MBA. Plenty of excellent schools—good enough to earn AACSB accreditation—offer the degree at a reasonable price. Best of all, you can earn it online, so you don't have to relocate and you don't have to quit your job.
Not so very long ago, options for those seeking a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree online were extremely limited. No longer; today there are literally hundreds of universities offering online MBA degree programs. Some even offer this notoriously expensive graduate degree at very affordable prices.
How affordable? Each of the MBA online degrees listed below charges under $600 per academic credit. Some charge well below that rate, making for some truly affordable MBAs. Compare that to the online MBA from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which costs almost $126,000 for its 62-credit program—that's over $2,000 a credit.
We've limited this list to business schools accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, one of the two preeminent accreditation organizations in the United States. We'll cover schools accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools & Programs (ACBSP) in a separate article.
For most schools we list, we provide the program's 2020-21 per-credit-hour (/ch) tuition cost, since most online students attend part-time and pay by the credit. Some schools charge on a sliding scale; in such instances, we calculated the per credit cost for 6 credits per term, the most common course load for online students. Most online MBA programs require between 36 and 64 credits to graduate; executive and accelerated MBAs can sometimes be completed with as few as 30 credits. In some instances, the schools provide full-program (/pgm) cost, and these are so noted.
Note that we've omitted non-tuition fees, which can be substantial. Take a close look at the fine print before you commit to a program. Remember also that shopping for schools is just like shopping for a car; you don't necessarily have to pay the sticker price if you're a good negotiator.
Most Affordable Online Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degrees (AACSB-Accredited)
*Questions or feedback? Email editor@noodle.com*