Best Online MBA Programs

Program formats

How Long Does An Online MBA Take?

Edited by Trevor Rupe

Published

A blank monthly planner page on a dark desk beside a sprig of eucalyptus

Fastest claimed

10 months

the shortest any page names

Median of the claims

12 months

across 39 programs that name one

At twelve months or less

23

of 39 naming a time

Median tuition of those

$19,388

$32,265 across all ranked

No federal source answers this. IPEDS measures completion for undergraduates, College Scorecard measures earnings and debt, and neither records how long a graduate program takes. What exists is what each school says on its own page, so that is what this article counts: every program on this site has had its page read and quoted, and 39 of those pages name a shortest finish in months.

How Long An Online MBA Takes, By The Schools' Own Claims

Grouped by what they claim. The bands matter because the fast end is a different product from the slow end: a twelve-month program is a full-time commitment with terms running back to back, and a two-year one is designed around a job.

Fastest completion claimed, grouped into bands
Claimed finishProgramsWhat that format looks like
10 to 12 months 23 Seven or eight-week terms, several start dates a year, often summer study
13 to 18 months 13 Accelerated terms at a lighter load, or a semester calendar taken full time
19 to 24 months 3 A semester calendar at a pace a full-time job allows

And What The Normal Pace Looks Like

A fastest finish is not a typical one, and the two get conflated constantly. Search results routinely put the usual range at 18 to 36 months, which is longer than every claim in the table above, and both can be true: one describes a student taking the maximum load without a break, the other describes a student with a job.

What the pages themselves say: 0 of the 143 read here use the words two years in describing their pace, against 39 that name a fastest finish in months. The structural fact underneath both is the calendar. 0 of these programs describe seven or eight-week terms rather than fifteen-week semesters, and that is what makes a twelve-month finish arithmetic rather than marketing: more terms in a year means more courses in a year, at the price of taking them without a gap.

What An Accelerated Online MBA Actually Changes

Not the degree. An accelerated online MBA carries the same credits as the same school's regular one; what changes is the calendar. Terms run seven or eight weeks instead of fifteen, start dates come six times a year instead of two, and courses are taken one or two at a time without a summer break. That is how 23 of these programs get to twelve months or less, and it is also why the claim carries conditions: miss a term and the arithmetic that produced the number stops working.

The Programs Claiming The Shortest Finish

Ranked programs whose pages name a fastest finish, shortest first, with the sentence it comes from. Tuition is the whole-program figure reported to AACSB.

Ranked online MBA programs by the fastest finish their pages claim
Program Claimed Tuition What its page says
St. Cloud State University, Minnesota 10 months $22,987 “Our accelerated programs feature 7-week courses that allow you to earn your online MBA in as few as 10 months.”
University of South Carolina Aiken, South Carolina 10 months $13,948 “Benefit from fast 7-week courses and complete your online MBA in as few as 10 months.”
Adelphi University, New York 12 months $32,670 “Adelphi’s online MBA can be completed in as few as 12 months for full-time students who attend during the summer term.”
Barry University, Florida 12 months $23,760 “As few as 12 months Program Duration 36 Credits”
Bowling Green State University, Ohio 12 months $18,180 “Duration as few as 12 months Credit Hours 30”
Emporia State University, Kansas 12 months $10,890 “Our accelerated, 7-week courses allow you to complete your online MBA in as few as 12 months.”
Fayetteville State University, North Carolina 12 months $21,531 “enabling an MBA to be earned in as little as 12 months or a maximum of 72 months”
Lamar University, Texas 12 months $13,153 “Duration As few as 12 months”
Pittsburg State University, Kansas 12 months $11,970 “As few as 12 months Duration 30 Credit Hours”
Saint Mary's College of California, California 12 months $45,360 “In as little as 12 months, you can earn an accredited MBA”
Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma 12 months $11,730 “Apply easily with no GMAT required and graduate in as few as 12 months.”
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Illinois 12 months $19,388 “You can complete your degree in as few as 12 months, with no foundation courses required, regardless of your undergraduate background.”
Southern Utah University, Utah 12 months $9,700 “Complete your online MBA program in as few as 12 months with our fast, 7-week courses.”
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas 12 months $14,478 “and a structured pathway to complete the degree in as few as 12 months”
The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, North Carolina 12 months $17,339 “Earn your Master of Business Administration in as few as 12 months”
University of Delaware, Delaware 12 months $43,604 “You can earn your degree in as few as 12 months full-time, or complete the program part-time at your convenience.”
University of Illinois at Springfield, Illinois 12 months $15,180 “Duration As few as 12 months”
University of North Carolina Wilmington, North Carolina 12 months $48,986 “The program does not require the GMAT for most applicants, can be completed in as few as 12 months”
University of Southern Indiana, Indiana 12 months $12,900 “Earn your AACSB-accredited online MBA in as few as 12 months”
William Paterson University, New Jersey 12 months $17,910 “A streamlined admission process and GMAT/GRE waivers help you get started quickly and easily so you can earn your MBA in as few as 12 months”

How To Read A Completion Claim

Three things sit behind every one of these sentences. The first is enrollment: a fastest time assumes a full load, which for most of these programs means two courses at once while working. The second is prerequisites, since a student without a business degree may owe foundation courses before the count starts. The third is transfer credit, which can shorten a program well below the published figure and is the one variable a school cannot advertise, because it depends on what you already have.

What none of it changes is the price: the affordable ranking orders the same programs by what the whole degree costs, and the fast ones are spread across it rather than clustered at either end.

Common Questions

How long does an online MBA take?
Of the 143 AACSB-accredited program pages this site has read, 39 name a fastest finish. Those run from 10 months to 24, with a median of 12. The rest name no fastest time at all: 0 of the 143 pages read use the words two years in describing their pace, which is the number to hold if you are studying alongside a job.
What is the fastest online MBA?
Among the programs here, Longwood University names the shortest finish at 10 months. A fastest time is a claim about the best case: it assumes full-time enrollment, no transfer of credit problems, and often summer terms.
What is an accelerated online MBA?
An accelerated online MBA compresses the same credits into shorter terms, usually seven or eight weeks instead of fifteen, with more start dates a year. The degree is not smaller; the weeks are. 23 of the 39 programs naming a fastest finish put it at twelve months or less, and they are almost all built this way.
Does finishing faster cost less?
Not usually. Tuition on these programs is charged per credit or as a whole-program figure, so speed changes when you pay rather than how much: the median whole-program tuition among programs naming a fast finish is $19,388, against $32,265 across all 286 ranked programs. What finishing early saves is a year of not having the degree.

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