High-quality, low-budget, alternatives to triple-crown MBAs have never been better. However, the industrial effort employed in marketing below-average, for-profit schools has never been more effective at concealing them. In this thread, I'd love to pool our ideas about the best-value alternatives at different price points.
Naturally, none of these are better investments than an excellent MBA. A high-quality MBA will increase your lifetime earnings by a huge amount, equal to many years' earnings. Sadly, not everyone is able to make that investment, and many of whose who are able are not prepared to take the risk.
I think the cheapest triple-crown distance learning MBAs are around $14k to $25k. The weakening pound means that British schools seem discounted, with past or current FT-ranked business schools at Aston, Bradford, the Open University, Oxford Brookes and RGU around $22k (And Manchester Met and the OU, via Amity, mush less). Illinois's iMBA and Wisconsin's Web MBA are arguably better designed and great value. However, there's a wide range of price-points below there.
Sadly, most people don't realize that an MBA from a terrible school, lacking any respected international accreditation, is worse than an alternative business education from a better school, both in terms of educational value and value perception by the most desirable employers. People get seduced by glamourous-sounding foreign schools, many of which are almost unknown in the institution's supposed home city.
Below are some of the better alternatives I know to an unaccredited MBA at a few price points.
- c. £0 A Coursera specialization https://www.coursera.org/browse/business?facets=skillNameMultiTag%2CjobTitleMultiTag%2CdifficultyLevelTag%2Clanguages%2CentityTypeTag%3ASpecializations%2CpartnerMultiTag%3AUniversity+of+Illinois+at+Urbana-Champaign%2CcategoryMultiTag%3Abusiness%2CsubcategoryMultiTag&sortField=
- c. £1700 The Maryland MBA Micromasters https://www.edx.org/micromasters/USMx-UMD-MBA-Core-Curriculum
- c. £2000 the University of the People MBA (has US national accrediation, which isn't the highest) https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/ba/degrees/master-of-business-administration/
- c. £3000 LSE graduate-entry BSc in management http://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/uolip/programmes#Bsc_standard
- c. £9000 AACSB-accredited MBA at Missouri State https://outreach.missouristate.edu/online/master-of-business-administration.htm
- c. £11,000 Triple-crown MBA from Manchester Met: https://globalonline.mmu.ac.uk/online-courses/mba-business-administration/
Which schools should I add to this list? Are any of these options less costly in your country?
PS Pricing updated for the Micromasters.
[Edited by Duncan on Jan 31, 2021]