Budding Entrepreneurs' Business Education Basics

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Alternatives for those who want a degree without breaking the bank include accelerated MBAs and Master of Management degrees. A two-year MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile) in Philadelphia will cost more than $100,000 in tuition, according to the school, while a one-year accelerated MBA degree can be had for $74,850 at Cornell University's Johnson School (Johnson Full-Time MBA Profile) in Ithaca, N.Y., $65,432 at Kellogg, and $54,058 at Babson College's F.W.Olin Graduate School of Business (Babson Full-Time MBA Profile) in Babson Park, Mass.

One-year degrees are common in Europe. In the U.K. tuition for accelerated MBAs costs $44,800 at the Cranfield School of Management (Cranfield Full-Time MBA Profile) in Bedford, England, and $30,537 at Durham Business School (Durham Full-Time MBA Profile) in Durham, England.

Single-year master's degrees in management are similarly priced. These offer business training to recent college graduates or to individuals with technical skills who seek to make the transition to management. One of the least expensive is offered by Cass School of Business in London. Tuition for the Cass MSc in Management is about $27,000, compared to $36,750 for the MS in Commerce at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce in Charlottesville or $42,135 for the Master of Management Studies degree at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business (Fuqua Full-Time MBA Profile) in Durham, N.C.

"There's hardly anywhere else in the world where you can do such a degree that's so highly rated at such an affordable price," says Rob Melville, co-course director of Cass's MSc in Management program. He points out that 79 percent of Cass grads found work within three months last year, despite the recession, beating Cornell and the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School (Kenan-Flagler Full-Time MBA Profile) in Chapel Hill, which ranked No. 11 and 17, respectively, in Bloomberg Businessweek's 2008 ranking of full-time MBA programs.

Business schools at state universities also offer discounted tuition for in-state students. Tuition for residents is just $22,000 a year at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business (Kelley Full-Time MBA Profile) in Bloomington and $23,000 a year at University of North Carolina, in each case about half what tuition would cost an out-of-state student.Michigan, California, and Virginia offer smaller breaks for in-state students.At the University of Michigan Ross School of Business (Ross Full-Time MBA Profile), for example, in-state students pay $45,189 a year—$5,000 less than their out-of-state counterparts.

If you're thinking of changing locations to get a deal on tuition, be prepared to wait. To qualify for residency tuition breaks in Indiana and North Carolina, you have to live and work in those states for at least a year, according to the schools' websites.

Tracer is an intern for Bloomberg Businessweek.

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