A Master of Business Administration is a graduate degree that prepares students for a career in business management. Graduates pursue a variety of professions, including roles in finance, entrepreneurship, and consulting. The degree typically takes roughly two academic years to complete, and approximately 200,000 MBA students in the US are enrolled in a typical year.
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That number (from 2024 and inclusive of signing bonuses) is higher than the average for all MBA grads in the US who secured jobs within three months after graduation (about $121,324), which signifies the impact of programs on MBA ROI. This list includes ROI for 30 different business school programs.
On average, the total investment for an MBA degree is more than $200K, which includes tuition, living expenses, lost income, and potential interest on student loans. This calculator can help you figure out your own future MBA degree’s estimated ROI based on your unique situation.
In 1908, Harvard launched the first modern MBA—and only admitted male candidates. The first full-year traditional female MBA students wouldn’t enroll at Harvard until 1963. Learn more about the history of the first women to receive their MBAs on Harvard’s website.
From the classroom to the boardroom, MBA students hear plenty of corporate jargon in their lifetimes (think: “bandwidth,” “turnkey solution,” “modularize,” and more). This website—a relic from the internet—includes an MBA jargon dictionary and a corporate BS generator tool that creates helpful phrases for office life, like “incubate synergistic e-markets.”
Many MBA programs include classes structured around the “case method” rather than traditional lectures. In classes using the case method, students solve real-world business problems without being given the answers ahead of time, rather than listening to a lecture and taking notes.
One expert even said that having an MBA from a prestigious school is “non-negotiable” for certain employers, such as elite management consulting, investment banking, and private equity.
While popular worldwide, these degrees aren’t necessarily the most popular in every country. In Japan, for instance, engineering is the most popular subject for master’s degrees. This data visualization ranks the most popular master’s degrees in dozens of countries around the world.
Although Harvard is often cited as the most prestigious MBA program in the US (given that it is considered to have pioneered the modern version of the MBA), US News ranked the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton as 2025’s best business school.
The Scientific Management movement was pioneered by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the early 1900s and posited managers should take a scientific approach to work, studying each task and system in the workplace from an objective lens. It’s still considered the backbone of modern management practices.
There’s no blanket rule for MBA programs about how much work experience an applicant should have. However, an admissions officer at an Ivy League business school said that while they’ve seen great candidates with only a year of experience, they also saw applicants who would clearly benefit from more.
The United States is home to more than 33 million businesses, the vast majority of which are small businesses, with millions being created (and others closing shop) every year. These businesses often rely on loans, provide the goods and services that keep the economy flowing, and sometimes even grow large enough to enter public markets or provide private investment opportunities. Explore key topics central to business and finance, from the role of the Federal Reserve to how initial public offerings work, how millions of American students finance higher education, and more.