What Are The Most Affordable Chicago MBAs?
Chicago is known for many things: delicious pizza (depending on who you ask), house music and a roaring comedy scene, to name a few. Though often overlooked simply due to its location in “fly-over country,” Chicago is the third most populous city in the U.S., and is home to nearly 40 of the Fortune 500 companies. This makes it an ideal place to pursue a business education. For those of you looking to pursue your MBA amidst the Windy City’s blend of Midwestern charm and big city bustle, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most affordable Chicago MBA programs.
Wait, This MBA Is How Cheap?
An MBA can cause varying levels of distress. Price, of course, likely tops the list. But not every degree needs to reach the dreaded six-figure mark. In fact, some, like the brand new online MBA offered by the University of Illinois College of Business at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), are shockingly inexpensive.
$22,000. That’s all. For an entire online MBA.
Let those numbers sink it, because figures like that appear far too often when pursuing any kind of graduate degree—nevermind an MBA.
The UIUC online MBA—dubbed the iMBA—was officially launched earlier this year. CNN Money reports that around 265 students are currently enrolled at an average age of 37. The majority of those students reside in the U.S. with around 18 percent international students joining.
This is a massive development for online MBA programs, according to some experts.
“About 10 years ago, online programs were really the stepchild of course offerings,” says Chioma Isiadinso, a former Harvard Business School admissions officer.
“There was a stigma attached to an online MBA years ago, but today employers are not asking how you got the degree. What’s more important is where you went and what skills you learned,” he continues.
The iMBA was created in partnership with Coursera, which has been helping implement online programs at top institutions like Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania since 2012.
Nikhil Sinha, the Chief Business Officer at Coursera, says, “We’re catering to people who typically wouldn’t be able to come into an MBA program at this stage in their life, but still need it to advance their careers.”
Heidi Moore, a systems engineering manager at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, earned a bachelor’s in aviation from the University of Purdue, but was looking for a business-focused career. She, like many, was wary about pursuing a non-traditional MBA. But the pricing and flexibility of the iMBA program at UIUC was more than enough to convince her.
“I want to get a master’s to become business savvy, but I don’t want to get into personal debt to do so. To me, that’s a contradiction,” she says.
Enrollment for January 2017 classes is currently underway. Applicants are encouraged to submit GMAT or GRE scores, but it is not an official requirement. Click here for more information on the program.
