10 MBA Programs That Stick Grads With the Most Debt

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When it comes to student loan debt, graduate students get slammed.

In fact, about 40 percent of the approximately $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt comes from graduate and professional degrees, according to a 2014 report from the New America Foundation.

Unfortunately for prospective MBA recipients, those programs don’t buck the trend. Among the class of 2014, the average debt load for those who borrowed was $56,157, according to data reported to U.S. News by 84 ranked schools.

That amounts to about $635 in monthly student loan payments over the course of a standard 10-year repayment plan, according to a student loan repayment estimator. That figure assumes 6.41 percent interest, which was the 2013-2014 rate for federal Graduate PLUS loans. And that doesn’t include any debt borrowed for an undergraduate degree.

If that sounds tough, imagine graduating from New York University, where the average loan bill for borrowers in the class of 2014 was $116,533. Repaying that debt – the most of any b-school reporting data to U.S. News – would require more than $1,300 per month on a 10-year plan at 6.41 percent.

With an average annual base salary of $112,096, some NYU graduates may be able to handle those monthly bills. For those making less, enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan can help make payments more palatable.

On average, 44 percent of 2014 graduates borrowed to earn their MBAs, according to the 77 ranked schools reporting that figure to U.S. News. Of the eight schools among the 10 most debt-ridden reporting that number, 55 percent of 2014 graduates borrowed to earn their degrees.

[Discover the eight student loan repayment myths experts want to see disappear.]

The following business schools had the highest debt among 2014 full-time graduates. Schools designated by U.S. News as Unranked were excluded from this list. U.S. News did not calculate numerical ranks for Unranked programs because they did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires. In the table below, U.S. News did not include schools that accepted fewer than 100 applicants.

Business school (name) (state) Average MBA program indebtedness Full-time 2014 graduates with debt U.S. News b-school rank
New York University (Stern) $116,533 N/A 11 (tie)
Duke University (Fuqua) (NC) $115,201 65% 13 (tie)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) $106,602 65% 5
Cornell University (Johnson) (NY) $106,200 N/A 16
University of Virginia (Darden) $102,122 66% 10
University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (Ross) $101,107 46% 11 (tie)
George Washington University (DC) $92,969 43% 58 (tie)
University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) $87,533 57% 18
University of California—Los Angeles (Anderson) $86,928 45% 15
Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) (PA) $86,443 55% 20