Each year, the release of the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools Rankings sparks discussion and decision-making among MBA hopefuls and business schools alike. Though these rankings have had their fair share of controversy, our research indicates that they are still the most widely used resources for program health and desirability.
The rankings release (April 8th this year) also contains another helpful bit of information that is not otherwise transparent – enrollments by program, by institution. Eduvantis has been collecting and cataloging this data longitudinally to track changes in the market.
In this post we dive into the high-level enrollment trends, including breaking down by Full-Time, Part-Time, and Online MBA formats. This data alone cannot paint the full picture of the health of the MBA market, but it helps offer insight into student preferences and market viability, providing a trendline benchmark against which each institution can measure up against.
Aggregate MBA Enrollments Continue to Rebound
*Release data contains institutional enrollment data from the previous year (where applicable / reported)
Total MBA enrollments (aggregated across Full-Time, Part-Time and Online) reported to US News & World Report exceeded those of the prior year, and continue to creep back towards the pandemic-induced high of around 200k. After a few years of decline, potentially due to both a decision acceleration for those who were first-time enrollees in 2021 coupled with an enrollment extension for those who were planning to graduate in 2020, aggregate enrollments grew 2% from 2023 to 2024, keeping enrollment on the high end of the plateau they’ve been in since 2020. If this trendline continues or increases, 2025 could have the highest MBA enrollment numbers nationally yet.
Online MBA Enrollments Still Surging; FTMBA Enrollments Had Good Year
This year’s MBA enrollment data shows continued growth for Online MBAs after a flat year in 2023 (4% increase YoY, +52% since 2017), a further downward trend for Part-Time MBAs (-5% decrease YoY, -32% since 2017), and a slight rise for Full-Time MBAs amid a general downhill slide (4% increase YoY, -13% since 2017), marking only the second time since 2017 with a YoY increase. While the distinction between an Online MBA and a Part-Time MBA can be murky at times today, what’s clear is that Online MBAs continue to take more of the total MBA market share, while PTMBA’s (in-person or hybrid) constitute less market share than ever.
Business Schools Continue Adjusting MBA Portfolio to Reflect New Market Realities
Institutions Reporting Enrollments | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
FTMBA | 279 | 262 | 255 | 252 | 248 | 244 | 226 | 234 |
PTMBA | 327 | 308 | 268 | 268 | 272 | 271 | 252 | 239 |
OMBA | 253 | 305 | 293 | 308 | 334 | 353 | 357 | 360 |
Another interesting data point to review is how many programs actually provide data each year by MBA product category. This shows where institutions are making investments and divestments in the MBA space. While the Online MBA and PTMBA data is consistent with what you’d expect based on the enrollment data, it’s interesting to see that FTMBA enrollments have not declined as quickly even as 16% fewer programs are providing data (this often means that the programs who are not participating anymore have shifted the delivery of their programs or shuttered them completely, but not always).
There is so much nuance to dive into with this enrollment data to best understand the MBA market, and we are always excited to do so when the rankings come out, and we will continue to do so (stay tuned). If you have any questions about what is happening over time with your particular market and/or set of competitors, please don’t hesitate to set up a 30-minute conversation with us, as we’d be happy to take a look with you to see what learnings we can derive together.