An MBA program being an expensive preposition, it is no wonder that students tend to take loans and run up debts that collectively amount to more than $ 1.2 trillion, second only to mortgages for consumer debt, says U.S. News quoting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau figures while providing the list of B-schools where grads had run up the highest debt.
Thus, at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, the average debt for 2015 MBA graduates was $115,048 – almost $9,000 more than the average for its 2014 borrowers. The school alumni had the highest average indebtedness among 93 MBA programs ranked in an annual survey.
Johnson, figuring 14th in the list of Best Business Schools rankings, charges a tuition fee of $59,500 per year for its full-time program and $163,940 for the Executive program. At graduation, 79.5 % of graduates of the full-time program are employed.
The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University comes second in the list with its students having run up a debt of $114,498 with 61% of its full time graduates being in debt. Tied at 12th spot in the Best Business School rankings, Fuqua charges $60,600 per year (full-time) and $166,000 total program (executive degree).
In third place is New York University’s Stern School of Business that previously topped the list. It now has average indebtedness of $107,458. It charges a fee of $ 63,720 per year (full-time), $ 2,010 per credit (part-time) and $177,800 total program (executive degree).
Interestingly, the list reveals that the percentage of students who borrow and tuition fees could vary greatly between schools. For instance, 69% students had availed of loans at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. While on an average, graduates owed $107,172, the annual tuition and fees amounted to $ 65,446.
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In sharp contrast,almost 75% of students at Coastal Carolina University, went in for loans, which is a higher proportion than any other school. This happened despite the annual tuition and fees for full-time students pegged relatively low at $15,990 for in-state students and $29,100 for out-of-state students. The average indebtedness among the 2015 grads was $23,063.
Alumni from the Missouri University of Science & Technology had the lowest average debt among all schools of $ 10,141.
However, these debts are to be seen in the light of the return of investment (ROI) at the end of the MBA program when graduates could expect their salaries to go up substantially to make repayment of student loans a breeze.
