Ranking Return On Investment

In a tough economic environment, a business school education is a big investment, and the payback for that investment becomes more important than ever. Here's a look at the ranked programs in our 2008 rankings of fulltime MBA programs, and a calculation on how long it will take—on average—to recoup that investment. Remember, these numbers will change based on personal circumstance, specifically pre-MBA pay and the post-MBA salary arc of a career.

Click column heading once to reorder from highest to lowest. Click twice to reorder from lowest to highest.

ROI Rank	2008 Best B-School Ranking	Ranking	School	Total B-School Costs	Post-MBA Pay increase	Years to Recoup B-School Costs

1	2	Int'l	IE Business School	151,450	96,500	1.57
2	2nd Tier	Int'l	Cranfield School of Management	146,600	50,000	2.93
3	2nd Tier	Int'l	Manchester Business School	179,345	60,000	2.99
4	2nd Tier	Int'l	Cambridge (Judge)	155,000	50,000	3.10
5	2nd Tier	U.S.	Michigan State (Broad)	173,329	53,000	3.27
6	10	Int'l	Oxford (Said)	158,500	48,000	3.30
7	2nd Tier	U.S.	Iowa (Tippie)	159,349	48,000	3.32
8	2nd Tier	Int'l	HEC Paris	163,146	48,000	3.40
9	2nd Tier	U.S.	Illinois-Urbana Champaign	171,131	50,000	3.42
10	9	Int'l	IESE	226,200	64,000	3.53
11	3	Int'l	INSEAD	173,000	46,000	3.76
12	2nd Tier	U.S.	Rochester (Simon)	193,576	51,000	3.80
13	22	U.S.	Brigham Young (Marriott)	154,482	40,000	3.86
14	7	Int'l	IMD	201,798	52,000	3.88
15	15	U.S.	Indiana (Kelley)	187,048	48,000	3.90
16	2nd Tier	U.S.	Connecticut	176,628	45,000	3.93
17	2nd Tier	U.S.	Ohio State (Fisher)	195,697	44,500	4.40
18	2nd Tier	U.S.	Thunderbird	177,355	40,000	4.43
19	20	U.S.	Notre Dame (Mendoza)	207,840	44,500	4.67
20	2nd Tier	Int'l	McGill (Desautels)	157,369	33,000	4.77
21	2nd Tier	U.S.	Purdue (Krannert)	186,340	38,000	4.90
22	2nd Tier	U.S.	Arizona State (Carey)	186,708	38,000	4.91
23	29	U.S.	Georgia Tech	197,622	40,000	4.94
24	2nd Tier	U.S.	Boston University	209,276	40,000	5.23
25	2nd Tier	U.S.	Minnesota (Carlson)	208,000	39,000	5.33
26	18	U.S.	Southern Methodist (Cox)	220,184	40,000	5.50
27	12	U.S.	Dartmouth (Tuck)	275,400	50,000	5.51
28	5	Int'l	London Business School	299,423	54,000	5.54
29	2nd Tier	U.S.	Babson (Olin)	226,810	40,000	5.67
30	19	U.S.	Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	250,564	44,000	5.69
31	28	U.S.	Washington University (Olin)	229,808	40,000	5.75
32	4	Int'l	Western Ontario (Ivey)	145,260	25,000	5.81
33	26	U.S.	Maryland (Smith)	222,333	38,000	5.85
34	27	U.S.	U. of Washington (Foster)	204,949	35,000	5.86
35	24	U.S.	Yale	251,840	42,000	6.00
36	1	Int'l	Queen's	150,896	25,000	6.04
37	6	U.S.	Stanford	302,664	50,000	6.05
38	2nd Tier	U.S.	Georgetown (McDonough)	241,000	39,500	6.10
39	6	Int'l	ESADE	198,500	32,500	6.11
40	2nd Tier	U.S.	George Washington	200,950	32,500	6.18
41	5	U.S.	Michigan (Ross)	257,289	41,500	6.20
42	2nd Tier	U.S.	UC-Irvine (Merage)	225,721	36,000	6.27
43	8	Int'l	Toronto (Rotman)	221,155	35,000	6.32
44	9	U.S.	MIT (Sloan)	291,864	46,000	6.34
45	23	U.S.	Emory (Goizueta)	244,922	38,000	6.45
46	2nd Tier	Int'l	York (Schulich)	184,000	27,500	6.69
47	25	U.S.	USC (Marshall)	234,800	35,000	6.71
48	17	U.S.	North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	240,333	35,000	6.87
49	30	U.S.	Vanderbilt (Owen)	237,284	34,000	6.98
50	2	U.S.	Harvard	308,300	44,000	7.01

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1. Includes tuition & required fees, living expenses, and median forgone salary for entire program. Where applicable, nonresident tuition figures used. Forgone salary based on BusinessWeek survey of recent MBA graduates and may not be representative of entire class. Individual costs may vary widely depending on financial aid, actual pre-MBA salary, and other factors.

2. Based on BusinessWeek survey of recent college graduates and may not be representative of entire class.

3. Calculated by dividing total b-school costs by post-mba pay increase. Does not take into account annual salary increases, bonuses, or stock-based compensation.