The Most Expensive Online MBA Programs

Call it the Hollywood advantage. The USC Marshall School of Business knows how to produce an online MBA program, in part thanks to its proximity to La La Land.

VER VIDEO MAS ABAJO 

Marshall’s online MBA has a large studio and several cameras. It has five instructional designers and five more production employees.

Thanks to the work of a couple of former Disney technicians, their videos even feature animation. Like its colleagues at the UNC Kenan-Flagler and Indiana Kelley, the USC organizes a show, in some aspects even more.

That element of show business partly explains the eye-catching price of an online Marshall MBA degree: $ 92,702, the fourth most expensive program between the US News and the top 100 in World Report.

But it’s worth it, says Sandra Chrystal, vice-dean of online education and business clinical communication professor at number 12 at Marshall. And all 88 current students at the school will agree, she says.

Chrystal has a word to describe the Marshall program, now in its third year and preparing to graduate from its first cohort: “Quality,” she says. “We are up to the programs that are really high-level programs.”

Where does the money go

If you are paying the best price for an online MBA, it is likely that most of the money will cover two main expenses: teaching staff and production.

 If a school has full-time instructors dedicated to the online program, that will increase the stakes, so to speak; If not, do not (See Mississippi State Approach).

And if a school that already has more than 20 teachers dedicated exclusively to its online program also hires Disney and other Hollywood veterans to improve their production values, that will also be reflected in the price.

“When we were building this, we observed all that, but above all we did not design it taking into account the price,” says Sandra Chrystal.

“We met with some of our best teachers and met with several focus groups composed of different corporate people, and we asked ourselves: ‘What should students do after receiving their MBA, when they walk out the door? ‘And we really have some good comments.

Most of the programs are excellent and give students the basics, but these employers looked for skills in data analysis, visualization and communication of that data analysis to all concerned.

“So we started with those premises and created five integrated courses, so there are teams of several teachers who teach each of those five courses, but in the five we have as part of the students’ learning that they have to do data analysis, that visualize the data and communicate it to the interested parties. That is in the five courses, and that is unique.

We felt we had to start with the quality of the program and the curriculum, and then it would be what it was for the number of units. “

COSTS FROM ONE END TO ANOTHER

The average cost of the 20 highest-priced online MBA programs in the US News ranking is $ 76,694. Of these, 12 cost more than $ 70,000 and two, No. 4 Kenan-Flagler and No. 2 Carnegie Mellon Tepper, push back their MBA candidates over $ 100,000 ($ 104,610 and $ 122,880, respectively).

All but one of the 20 schools has costs per credit hour of more than $ 1,000: No. 16 from the State of Florida ($ 750). The high range is Tepper, at $ 1,920 per credit hour, with No. 61 Miami ($ 1,900) far behind, and Marshall ($ 1,778) the third most among the top 100 in the US. UU

Compare all this with the average total cost of the 20 lowest priced programs in the US News ranking: $ 16,337. Sixteen of those schools cost less than $ 20,000; 10 have costs per credit hour of less than $ 500. (Eleven schools among the top 100 did not report total cost data).

It is possible to have the best of both worlds, if Indiana Kelley is a guide. The online program of that school, classified fourth in general by US News, has a total price of $ 66,300, however, it is very appreciated in academic circles for the quality of its presentation and curriculum.

 Or see two of the USC rank mates, Miller College of Business at Ball State University and Wisconsin-Consortium: both are tied with Marshall at number 12, but have a total cost of only $ 17,700 and $ 20,250, respectively.

The best school in general in the ranking, the Fox University School of Temple University, costs a total of only $ 59,760.

THE ‘CADILLAC’ OF PROGRAMS

S
o what makes Kenan-Flagler the “Cadillac” of online MBA programs? As Dean Douglas Shackelford explains, the school not only places a camera in the back of a room and tells a teacher to go