Six of the eight Ivy League universities in the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. Located on the East Coast of the United States, ...

have a

business school A business school is a higher education institution or professional school that teaches courses leading to degrees in business administration or management. A business school may also be referred to as school of management, management school, s ...

that offers a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

degree, including

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

at Pennsylvania and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell also have an undergraduate business program.

History

Although the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

is a

college athletic conference In college athletics in the United States, institutions typically join in Athletic conference, conferences for regular play under different governing bodies. Varsity sports There are several national and regional associations governing the var ...

, Ivy League also refers to eight private research universities in the

. Six of the eight Ivy League universities have a

that offers a

degree, including

, the

, and

. Cappelli, Bonet, and Hamori note, "The Ivy League business schools, associated with higher social class in terms of the income and social status of their students, had a long head start on other MBA programs." The creation of business schools at Ivy League universities occurred over a century ago.

Joseph Wharton Joseph Wharton (March 3, 1826January 11, 1909) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was instrumental in the development of the nickel and zinc metal industries in the United States. He created the first plant in the United Stat ...

established the first university-based business school at the

of the University of Pennsylvania in 1881. In 1900, the

Tuck School of Business The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. It was founded in 1900 as the first institution in th ...

at Dartmouth College was founded as the world's first graduate school of business. The

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

became the first business school to offer the MBA degree in 1921. Because there were no textbooks for its new MBA program, Harvard pioneered the

case study method A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular fi ...

of teaching which is still used by business schools today. In 1955, five Ivy League schools—Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Pennsylvania—offered MBA degrees. These five business schools collectively graduated half of the MBA degrees awarded in the United States that year. Also in 1955, Wharton became the first Ivy League business school to admit female students, although only to its undergraduate program. Yale added its MBA program in 1976. By 2001, Ivy League MBA graduates constituted only five percent of all MBA degrees awarded in the United States but represented over 23 percent of the MBA qualifications held by top executives at

Fortune 100 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...

companies. In 2021, Ivy League business schools provided 3,680 MBA graduates, representing only 3.6% of the total MBAs awarded. However, the preference for Ivy League MBA graduates has increased, according to Cappelli, Bonet, and Hamori. As of 2022, all of the Ivy League MBA programs are ranked in the top fifteen of US colleges by '' U.S. News & World Report''. ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' ranks the six programs in its top eleven. Of the Ivy League business schools, the Tuck School MBA programs accepts the most candidates, with an acceptance rate of 33 percent as of the 2023–24 academic year. Harvard and Columbia have the lowest acceptance rates, at 9.2 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively.

Cost and outcomes

The average cost of an Ivy League MBA is $100,000 a year, with tuition averaging $78,000 a year as of 2022. BestColleges notes that despite the high tuition rates at Ivy League business schools, graduates from these programs have access to alumni and industry connections that can lead to middle management positions with high salaries. Ivy League MBA graduates from the class of 2021 had a median postgraduate base salary of $150,000 a year.

Ivy League business schools

Six of the eight Ivy League universities have a

that offers a

degree. Of these six, only the

at Pennsylvania and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell offer an undergraduate business program. The two remaining Ivy League schools,

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, lack both a graduate and undergraduate business program. However, Princeton does have

Master of Finance The Master of Finance is a master's degree awarded by universities or graduate schools preparing students for careers in finance. The degree is often titled Master in Finance (M.Fin., MiF, MFin), or Master of Science in Finance (MSF in North Am ...

degree and Brown offers a joint

Executive MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

degree with

IE Business School IE Business School is a graduate and undergraduate business school, located in Madrid, Spain. It was founded in 1973 under the name Instituto de Empresa (lit. Institute of Business) and is part of IE University since 2007. IE Business School is ...

in Spain.

References

{{Ivy League Business schools in the United States

History

Cost and outcomes

Ivy League business schools

See also

References