CalcStack — free, instant, no signup. The interactive calculator loads automatically.
The sticker price is half the cost. The paychecks you skip are the other half.
A $120,000 MBA does not cost $120,000 — two years out of the workforce at $70,000 makes the real bill $280,000, and the only thing that pays it back is the salary bump, compounding. This calculator totals tuition plus forgone pay, then runs the bump forward with annual raises to show your payback period and 10-year net return.
Applicants use it before the deposit: $120k tuition plus $140k forgone pay is the real $280k bill — and a $35k bump needs 8 years to pay it back.
It depends almost entirely on the size of the bump, not the brand on the diploma. The break-even math: total cost (tuition + forgone salary) divided by the annual bump gives a crude payback — under 5 years is strong, 5–8 is typical for full-time programs, and past 10 the degree is a lifestyle choice, not an investment. The compounding matters more than people expect: a $35,000 bump growing 3% annually pays back $280,000 in year 8 but nets +$121,000 by year 10 — the back half of the decade does the heavy lifting. Part-time and executive programs change the equation completely by eliminating the forgone-salary half, which is often why they pencil out better despite identical tuition.
School-reported medians run $30,000–$60,000 for full-time programs at top-25 schools, but the distribution is wide and self-selected. Use the employment report for YOUR target school and YOUR target industry: consulting and investment banking pay the highest immediate bumps ($50,000+) but demand 60–80 hour weeks; tech product management and corporate strategy run $30,000–$45,000 with better hours. Career-switchers often see a bump against their OLD salary but not against what the new field pays non-MBAs after 2 more years of experience — the honest comparison is against your counterfactual career, not your current paycheck. If the bump is under $20,000, a full-time program almost never pays back.
Yes, if you are borrowing. Graduate student loans currently run higher rates than undergraduate, and interest accrues while you are in school — $100,000 borrowed at 7% for a 2-year program adds roughly $14,000 before repayment starts, then more over a 10-year repayment schedule. A quick approximation: add 30–40% of the borrowed amount to the tuition figure over a standard repayment term. Also count the opportunity cost of the retirement contributions you skip — two years of missed 401(k) contributions plus employer match at a $70,000 salary is roughly $10,000–$15,000 of forgone compounding. The calculator keeps the inputs simple, so pad the tuition field with interest and the salary field with total compensation if you want the strict number.