Cost and return · figures from each school’s own report
How much an MBA costs, school by school
Counting the salary given up by a $90,000 earner, a full-time MBA costs from $134,621 at ISB to $436,796 at NYU Stern.
Total cost of the Harvard MBA
$418,136
Payback 4.0 years · 10-year NPV $300,068
| Tuition and fees, whole program | $183,316 |
| Living budget | $77,320 |
| Salary given up, 21 months | $157,500 |
| Total cost | $418,136 |
| Salary after: median base salary | $185,000 |
| Signing bonus × share receiving it | $17,400 |
| 10-year net present value | $300,068 |
| Return on the cost (present values) | 73% |
US dollars at the ECB rate of the last update. Raises of 5% a year with the MBA and 3% without, discounted at 5%, before tax. How this is calculated.
Built by Radif Partners · figures checked · Method · Editorial policy
An MBA costs far more than its tuition. For the 49 schools that publish both tuition and a living budget, we add four lines: tuition, mandatory fees, the school's own estimate of living costs, and the salary you stop earning while you study, then subtract summer internship pay on two-year programs. For a person earning $90,000 today, the total runs from $134,621 at ISB to $436,796 at NYU Stern. Tuition and fees alone range from $27,340 at IIM Lucknow IPMX to $201,382 at Columbia. The middle two-year program costs $376,198 in total and the middle program of a year or less $194,519, mostly because of the months of pay given up. 24 schools give no living budget, so their total stays blank rather than guessed; for British schools without one, we count the UK student visa minimum as a floor.
The four lines of the bill
Tuition is the line every school puts first. Among the two-year American programs, tuition and fees run from $92,944 at Georgia Tech Scheller to $201,382 at Columbia, and 13 of the 32 sit within $20,000 of the dearest. Mandatory fees come next, and some schools bury large amounts there. Harvard, the default school of the calculator, adds $13,796 of fees to $169,520 of tuition, then budgets $77,320 for two years of living. The third line is the student budget the school publishes for rent, food, health cover and books. The fourth, the salary you give up, rivals tuition for most applicants and is the one no brochure prints.
Every amount below is the school's own figure for the whole program, converted to US dollars at the European Central Bank rate of October 13, 2026. Where a school quotes one year of a two-year program, we count it twice and say so on its page. Internship pay comes off two-year totals, at the school's median monthly figure for 2.5 months.
| School | Months | Tuition and fees | Living budget | Salary given up | Internship back | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISB | 12 | $39,804 | $4,817 | $90,000 | 0 | $134,621 |
| Mannheim | 12 | $55,549 | $17,901 | $90,000 | 0 | $163,450 |
| UCD Smurfit | 12 | $52,181 | $22,868 | $90,000 | 0 | $165,049 |
| AGSM UNSW | 12 | $60,542 | $20,139 | $90,000 | 0 | $170,681 |
| Queen's Smith | 12 | $78,365 | $13,342 | $90,000 | 0 | $181,707 |
| Warwick | 12 | $82,791 | $18,058 | $90,000 | 0 | $190,849 |
| RSM | 12 | $78,600 | $24,166 | $90,000 | 0 | $192,766 |
| HKU | 12 | $82,570 | $23,701 | $90,000 | 0 | $196,271 |
| Ivey | 12 | $99,227 | $15,378 | $90,000 | 0 | $204,605 |
| KAIST | 24 | $28,503 | $16,506 | $180,000 | 0 | $225,009 |
| Imperial | 12 | $107,297 | $30,099 | $90,000 | 0 | $227,396 |
| INSEAD | 10 | $122,911 | $33,564 | $75,000 | 0 | $231,475 |
| Cambridge Judge | 12 | $114,251 | $27,420 | $90,000 | 0 | $231,671 |
| HKUST | 16 | $76,454 | $41,454 | $120,000 | 0 | $237,908 |
| Oxford Saïd | 12 | $124,676 | $23,446 | $90,000 | 0 | $238,122 |
| Alliance MBS | 18 | $68,220 | $36,139 | $135,000 | 0 | $239,359 |
| IMD | 12 | $117,143 | $43,253 | $90,000 | 0 | $250,396 |
| HEC Paris | 16 | $114,118 | $28,306 | $120,000 | 0 | $262,424 |
| Toronto Rotman | 20 | $101,656 | $27,920 | $150,000 | -$10,390 | $269,186 |
| Georgia Tech Scheller | 21 | $92,944 | $50,792 | $157,500 | -$23,233 | $278,003 |
| Indiana Kelley | 21 | $116,236 | $52,022 | $157,500 | -$19,500 | $306,258 |
| Texas McCombs | 21 | $123,928 | $49,350 | $157,500 | -$23,048 | $307,730 |
| Washington Foster | 21 | $123,428 | $82,168 | $157,500 | -$24,915 | $338,181 |
| Vanderbilt Owen | 21 | $159,252 | $54,114 | $157,500 | -$21,450 | $349,416 |
| Notre Dame Mendoza | 21 | $157,620 | $57,980 | $157,500 | -$23,023 | $350,077 |
| ASU Carey | 21 | $130,000 | $62,952 | $157,500 | 0 | $350,452 |
| Minnesota Carlson | 21 | $137,584 | $58,396 | $157,500 | 0 | $353,480 |
| BU Questrom | 21 | $148,944 | $51,976 | $157,500 | 0 | $358,420 |
| UNC Kenan-Flagler | 21 | $148,384 | $58,840 | $157,500 | 0 | $364,724 |
| LBS | 21 | $164,720 | $42,533† | $157,500 | 0 | $364,753 |
| Georgetown McDonough | 21 | $159,710 | $70,512 | $157,500 | -$20,273 | $367,449 |
| Emory Goizueta | 21 | $174,480 | $65,712 | $157,500 | -$30,000 | $367,692 |
| CMU Tepper | 21 | $177,156 | $61,440 | $157,500 | -$25,133 | $370,963 |
| Michigan Ross | 21 | $163,269 | $60,664 | $157,500 | 0 | $381,433 |
| Duke Fuqua | 21 | $177,088 | $50,580 | $157,500 | 0 | $385,168 |
| Chicago Booth | 21 | $186,256 | $72,258 | $157,500 | -$30,000 | $386,014 |
| UVA Darden | 21 | $178,680 | $59,720 | $157,500 | 0 | $395,900 |
| Berkeley Haas | 21 | $185,510 | $75,920 | $157,500 | -$21,668 | $397,262 |
| MIT Sloan | 21 | $184,624 | $83,754 | $157,500 | -$23,965 | $401,913 |
| Wharton | 21 | $186,016 | $84,866 | $157,500 | -$26,040 | $402,342 |
| UCLA Anderson | 21 | $186,177 | $82,253 | $157,500 | -$23,425 | $402,505 |
| Cornell Johnson | 21 | $180,768 | $72,288 | $157,500 | 0 | $410,556 |
| Kellogg | 21 | $195,172 | $59,340 | $157,500 | 0 | $412,012 |
| Yale SOM | 21 | $182,800 | $75,152 | $157,500 | 0 | $415,452 |
| Dartmouth Tuck | 21 | $187,372 | $72,858 | $157,500 | 0 | $417,730 |
| Harvard | 21 | $183,316 | $77,320 | $157,500 | 0 | $418,136 |
| Stanford GSB | 21 | $197,676 | $84,204 | $157,500 | -$20,000 | $419,380 |
| Columbia | 20 | $201,382 | $84,678 | $150,000 | 0 | $436,060 |
| NYU Stern | 21 | $187,356 | $91,940 | $157,500 | 0 | $436,796 |
Cheapest and dearest, and why the order is not the tuition order
ISB comes first because its program is short and its fees low: $39,804 of tuition and fees, $4,817 of living costs and $90,000 of salary given up over 12 months. NYU Stern comes last at $436,796, of which $91,940 is living costs alone. Between those ends, length decides more than reputation: a program of a year or less gives up about half the pay of a 21-month one, which is why the middle one-year total, $194,519, sits well below the middle two-year total, $376,198.
A cheap total is not a good deal by itself. Salaries after the program differ even more than costs, and the ROI ranking sets each total against the pay the school reports.
The salary you give up while you study
Salary given up, net of the internship
$157,500
| Gross salary not earned | $157,500 |
| Per month away | $7,500 |
Pension contributions and raises you would have had are not counted here.
Living budgets: the line that moves with the city
Schools build their budgets for a single student sharing nothing, and they differ in what they put in. In the United States the two-year figures run from $49,350 at Texas McCombs to $91,940 at NYU Stern, a gap that says as much about rents in each city as about the program. Some American schools put the university health plan inside the budget, which makes their figure look higher than a European one that leaves insurance to you. A partner, children, flights home and the months between the end of classes and the first salary are never inside.
24 schools publish tuition but no living budget, CEIBS, CUHK, EDHEC, Esade, ESMT Berlin and Fudan among them. We do not fill the gap with a number from a cost-of-living website: the total stays blank and the calculator asks for your own figure.
The UK visa floor
When a British school gives no budget, we use the amount UK Visas and Immigration requires students to hold: £1,529 a month in London and £1,171 a month elsewhere. The rule itself asks for that sum over at most 9 months, which is only the proof needed for the visa; we apply it to every month of the program, because you will pay rent for all of them. Read it as the least you will spend, not an estimate. The schools concerned today are LBS.
The salary you give up
For a $90,000 earner, 10 months away cost $75,000, 12 months away cost $90,000 and 16 months away cost $120,000; 21 months cost $157,500. Raises you would have had and pension contributions come on top and are left out. Type your own salary into the calculator: above a certain level, the pay given up outweighs tuition and living together, and a shorter program or an executive MBA with no career break starts to make sense.
A fee or a salary in US dollars
In US dollars
$111,880
| 1 EUR | $1.119 |
ECB reference rate of October 13, 2026. Prices on the ground do not follow exchange rates one for one.