Who Offers the Cheapest Online MBA?

By Vicky Phillips, Chief Education Analyst

Question: I’m ready for business school online. I need an online MBA. Fast. But I already carry $25,000 in student loans from my bachelors degree. Can the researchers at GetEducated.com recommend a cheap online MBA that's also good in quality? —Brad Manchester, NH Answer: Brace yourself. The cost range of an online MBA, also known as a distance MBA, is truly staggering. According to the Get Educated 2012 Ranking Survey of Affordable Online MBAs, a national survey which examined online degree costs at 206 accredited online business schools, you can pay as little as $4,464 or as much as $123,225 for an accredited distance MBA. With a $119,000 price difference between the least expensive and cheapest online mba program, you’re smart to compare costs before you enroll. Accreditation, geographic region and the business structure of your online mba program—whether it is a non-profit or a for-profit school—are the three major the factors that will drastically affect the cost of your online MBA. Cheapest Online MBA As a rule, the cheapest online MBA programs come from schools that are nationally accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). Average cost of a distance learning MBA from a DETC school: $11,886. Six DETC institutions—business schools such as New Charter University (formerly known as Andrew Jackson University), California Coast University, Ashworth College, William Howard Taft, and Columbia Southern—offer online MBA programs with sticker prices under $10,000. If you pay less do you get less? Maybe. DETC degrees are not as widely accepted as regionally accredited degrees. (More than 85 percent of all colleges in the USA are regionally accredited). Most DETC-accredited schools don’t operate residential campuses. Most operate solely as distance learning schools. For this reason, DETC-accredited schools don’t tend to carry as much brand name recognition with employers. Cheapest Online MBA - Regional Accreditation If you want a regionally accredited distance MBA, bargains abound. Most of these come from public universities in the South or the Midwest that have begun offering their degrees online to a national audience. Eastern New Mexico State University offers the cheapest online MBA program ($5,978). In fact, among the 355 online MBA options Get Educated editors surveyed in 2012, Eastern was objectively the cheapest. Wayne State College, second runner up, is also a real steal at $7,500. Editor's Choice Ad Northeastern University Online MBA Top Ranked by US News – best AACSB university. Customize your MBA with 8 specializations! Click here for your free brochure... Cheapest Distance MBA – AACSB If you have to have the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business’ (AACSB) stamp of approval on your MBA, The University of Louisiana Monroe offers the cheapest MBA at a price tag of $8,990 for online students nationwide. Southeast Missouri State University offers the second cheapest MBA option—but only if you’re lucky enough to be a resident of the state of Missouri. It’s $9,389 for Missourians, but almost $16,000 for everyone else. Those who reside in the South can select from a slew of public universities that offer affordable online MBAs; since you don’t, Brad, try the University of North Dakota or the University of South Dakota, both of which have distance MBAs for under $13,000 (no matter where you live).