Today a degree from Harvard will cost the lucky student $220,000, but Harvard has said that their students can expect to earn at least $140,000 or more upon graduation.
The US Department of Education released a report that shows roughly 92,800 people took out federal student loans to fund their MBAs and graduated in 2016 and 2017 with a whopping $3.7 billion in debt. According to the Wall Street Journal, at the top of the heap were Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and NYU’s Stern School, both with an average of $116,000 and $105,000 debt loads per student.
These figures aren’t all that surprising when you compare the debt figures with the cost of the programs. Shockingly, the cost of an MBA has doubled since the financial crisis and it is still growing. Today a degree from Harvard will cost the lucky student $220,000, but Harvard has said that their students can expect to earn at least $140,000 or more upon graduation and leverage the schools strong alumni network.
The point of the story is that with the cost of an MBA, especially from one of the top ten, it is a big bet, and frankly one that is likely to pay off, in a healthy bull market of course.