The tables have turned on full-time and online MBA programmes. A few years back online programmes still struggled with acceptance and full-time programmes seemed to be the only well-regarded programmes. But times have changed and by now enrolments and applications to full-time programmes are declining whilst the demand for online MBAs has exploded. In the U.S. alone more than 300 business schools offer online options. There is a continuous stream of newcomers with the University of Michigan and UC-Davis being the most recent universities to add offers.
For the third year in a row now, US-website Poets&Quants has ranked online MBA offers. This year’s winner Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business has come back from fourth place last year, after topping the inaugural list three years ago. The school’s part-time hybrid programme includes live online sessions, in-person weekends, and traditional online course structures and is also the most expensive online programme in the world with a $137,200 price tag according to Poets&Quants.
Second place went to Indiana University’s Kelley Direct Online MBA programme, whereas last year’s winner, the University of California Marshall School of Business, came third. Lehigh University’s College of Business continues its climb moving from sixth to fifth to fourth place this year. Number 5 was the Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.
Number 6 to 10 were awarded to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Isenberg School of Management, the Foisie School at Worcester Polytechnic University, Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Rochester Institute of Technology’s Saunders College of Business.
The Online Executive MBA at the Rochester Institute of Technology Saunders College of Business also proved to be the most selective of all with only 30.8 per cent of applicants being admitted. That’s nearly 10 percentage points lower than the next-closest school, the Jack Welch Management Institute, at 40.4 per cent according to Poets&Quants.
Top ten online MBA programmes of 2020 according to Poets&Quants:
- Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business, $137,200
- Indiana University Kelley School of Business, $74,520
- University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, $106,197
- Lehigh University College of Business, $39,600
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School, $125,589
- University of Massachusetts-Amherst Isenberg School of Management, $35,983
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute Foisie Business School, $75,168
- Auburn University Harbert College of Business, $35,100
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln, $30,240
Rochester Institute of Technology Saunders College of Business, $78,000
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