Editorial: It's No Wonder MBA Costs Are Declining

A news story in the Wall Street Journal found that business schools across the country are slashing the cost of their MBA programs. But an editorial in the same newspaper suggests that story and others on the subject miss the real reason the cost of an MBA is dropping. As an example, the editorial points to the University of California, Irvine, which just trimmed the cost of its part-time MBA by $30,000, landing it at $99,000. The school frames the move as expanding access, but the new price sits just under a key line: a federal cap that now limits most graduate students to $100,000 in federal loans and $200,000 for professional programs like law and medicine.

That cap, created by last year's tax law, replaces what had effectively been an open credit line for grad students—and, by extension, for universities. The editorial cites federal data showing students at some master's programs graduating with six-figure debt and relatively modest salaries, then leaning on generous loan-forgiveness plans. "All of this reinforces that universities respond to government incentives like any business," reads the editorial. "For too long those incentives encouraged colleges to raise prices and bury students in debt. One of the 2025 tax bill's overlooked benefits is that it will impose a modicum of financial discipline in higher ed." Read the full editorial.