M7 Business Schools: Fees, Scholarship, and More

Embark on a captivating journey through the corridors of excellence in business education as we unravel the compelling narrative of M7 Business Schools. Revered as the epitome of academic distinction, these seven institutions have etched their names in the annals of business history, setting unparalleled standards and shaping the destinies of global business leaders.

Beyond their collective prestige, delve into the vibrant tapestry of diversity woven by these schools, each bearing its own distinct culture, heritage, and ethos. While united by a commitment to academic rigor, extensive resources, and formidable alumni networks, it is their individuality that truly sets them apart, propelling them to the forefront of graduate business education.

Join us as we explore the essence of leadership, innovation, and excellence that defines the essence of M7 Business Schools.

What Makes the M7 Business Schools so Magnificent?

The M7 Business Schools' magnificence lies in their commitment to academic excellence, their ability to attract and nurture top talent, the success of their alumni, their extensive networks, their prestigious reputation, their investment in resources, and their selective admissions process. These factors collectively make the M7 Business Schools a formidable force in the world of business education, preparing students to excel in their careers and contribute meaningfully to the business world.

Discover our institution's key strengths, including academic excellence, alumni success, talent cultivation, extensive networks, prestigious reputation, state-of-the-art resources, and selective admissions - 

• Academic Excellence: Renowned for top-notch education with expert faculty, rigorous curriculum, and modern teaching methods
• Talent Pool: Attracts smart and diverse students, fostering collaboration and innovation
• Alumni Success: Graduates achieve remarkable success, becoming CEOs, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders. Strong alumni network provides mentorship and connections
• Extensive Networks: Offers partnerships with leading companies, networking events, and job placements
• Prestigious Reputation: Globally recognized and respected by employers and institutions, providing a competitive edge in the job market
• State-of-the-Art Resources: Invests in libraries, research centers, databases, and technology to support education and research
• Selective Admissions: A highly competitive admission process ensures exceptional and motivated student

Of course, there are other elite MBA programs. These m7 business schools have a history together that continues –their deans connected with each other years ago and formed a group to meet and share information regularly. Eventually, these meetings grew beyond just the deans to include others within their admissions offices, creating a consistent flow of information. Meetings and discussions address a range of issues, including best practices for components of the admissions process and responses to current events that directly impact MBA admissions.

A Deeper Look at M7 Business Schools

M7 Business Schools stand as the paragons of business education, revered for their rich history and legacy. With decades of shaping business leaders and contributing to the global commerce landscape, these institutions have become synonymous with excellence. The hallmark of M7 schools lies in their world-class faculty, comprised of renowned professors and seasoned experts who impart not just knowledge but real-world experience. Their comprehensive curricula delve deep into business principles, offering specializations in finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, and more. However, what truly sets M7 schools apart is the environment of peer learning, where students are surrounded by brilliance, fostering collaborative creativity, problem-solving, and invaluable networking opportunities.

1. Harvard Business School

In our list of M7 business schools, this is one of the best colleges to do your master's degree. Immersion could be the keyword for the Harvard Business School experience. The cornerstone of the program is the case-study academic approach: students read the case and then intensively analyze it both before and in class. The aim is to train students in real-world, complex decision-making.

By continuously engaging with classmates from different functions and industries/sectors in these case discussions, students radically expand their perspectives, thought processes, and knowledge. This immersive experience is heightened and enhanced by the smarts, passion, and ambition of HBS students. Outside of class, these high-achieving, high-energy students participate together in many clubs and volunteer activities. The two years fly by, and suddenly, you're graduating when it seems like you've just started at HBS, thanks to the nonstop immersion and engagement.

• Median GMAT score: 730
• Average GPA: 3.69
• Acceptance Rate: 12%

What HBS is looking for in applicants?

Given the case approach, HBS seeks students and future leaders who will carry their weight and contribute fully in the classroom – people who have something to say and the ability to communicate it. Further, they must be able to listen, respond thoughtfully, and adapt to new ideas as the dialogue progresses. Beyond the requisite high accomplishment, people who enthusiastically and capably engage.

2. Stanford Graduate School of Business

Transformation, nothing less – that's what Stanford Business School is about. With its Silicon Valley connection and “mythology” (as one student puts it on the website), innovation, change, and entrepreneurship shape the Stanford program. Its small, elite cohort goes on an exploratory journey together, and many emerge in a different place than they expected when they started out.

This journey integrates the personal and the professional - in Stanford's multifaceted pedagogical approach, building business and leadership skills is tied to understanding and defining your mission and your vision. Beyond the MBA classroom, students learn from and engage with numerous guest speakers who represent the cutting edge in their fields and are encouraged to access Stanford's various other top-notch programs, including law, medicine, engineering, humanities, and sciences.

• Stanford GSB Average GMAT score: 738
• Stanford GSB Average GPA: 3.78
• Stanford GSB Acceptance Rate: 8.9%

What Stanford GSB is looking for in applicants

Given the above encapsulation of the program, Stanford wants people who will be excellent “fellow travelers.” People who have – and bring to the program – a point of view, a unique perspective. Risk-takers. Change agents. At the same time, they deliberately remain a “work in progress” – always open to new information, ideas, and situations and willing to change accordingly. They relish exploration and collaboration.

3. Columbia Business School

Its New York City home is integral to Columbia's MBA program and the program's identity. Right on its website landing page, the first lines cite the benefit of being “at the very center of business.” Thanks to this location, along with its renowned full-time faculty, Columbia attracts adjuncts and speakers who are thought leaders in many areas of business and beyond because so many either reside in/near NYC or visit frequently. Because Columbia’s ongoing interaction with the city makes it such a dynamic program, it builds student community from the start through the cluster program – clusters comprise 60-75 diverse students who take all first-year classes together.

As for academics, CBS’s depth in finance is unique: along with a “Financed” major, it offers majors in “Private Equity” and “Value Investing.” Other highly acclaimed specializations are “Social Enterprise” and “Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management” – the latter strengthened by the plethora of major pharma companies within a couple hours’ drive. The NYC location also reinforces and amplifies the “Entrepreneurship” resources, given the city’s strong tech and fintech ecosystem. An important part is what Columbia b-school is of M7 business schools.

• CBS Average GMAT Score: 729
• CBS Average GPA: 3.50
• CBS Acceptance Rate: 18.2%

What Columbia Business School is looking for in applicants

Beyond strong professional and academic track records, Columbia wants people who have a plan – for taking advantage of the CBS resources, for engaging with the surrounding city and its endless opportunities, and for pursuing their defined goals. Because it’s easy to fade into the background in the immensity of NYC and the dynamism of Columbia University, CBS also wants students who can and do forge bonds with peers.

4. MIT Sloan School of Business

“We welcome wicked problems.” That quote from the MIT MBA website captures what’s special about the MIT Sloan MBA. The MIT cohort learns how to develop robust solutions that can weather uncertainty, ambiguity, and change. And they take pleasure in that learning.

Sure, the adcom wants leaders of a sort - “anti-leaders” – people who become leaders organically by drawing others along the journey to solve a wicked problem. The MIT MBA roots its approach in two concepts that intertwine: invention, entailing creativity and agility, and data-driven analysis, entailing rigour and objectivity. These concepts align with the broader MIT university.

Just as a robust process involves iteration, this program supports its pedagogy with ongoing experiential learning opportunities - practice – to reinforce and deepen the learning and ensure the students grasp topics in a real-world context. In essence, the MIT MBA program graduates people who are able to see around corners and are prepared to make constructive use of whatever they encounter.

They will probably lead others in the process, but that’s a result of their zeal and/or vision to tackle a compelling problem. Among other M7 business schools, MIT is best for tech-oriented programs as well.

• MIT Sloan  GMAT score: 730
• MIT Sloan GPA: 3.59
• MIT Sloan Acceptance Rate: 14.6%

What MIT Sloan is looking for in applicants

Can you be guided by the data? When we compare M7 business schools, MIT seeks students who are open to going where the data leads, even if it contradicts their preferences or assumptions. MIT also seeks people who possess both vision and practical skills. Who are creative and analytical. That doesn’t mean they expect (or want) these qualities 50/50. But, if, say, you veer toward creative and visionary, you should still show a record of concrete impact and achievement. Needless to say, in such a program, curiosity and collaboration are also sought.

5. Wharton Business School

The Wharton MBA program is big – almost 900 enrolled students, multiple opportunities for joint degrees and certificates (from law and veterinary medicine to the Lauder program and Harvard Kennedy School), 18 majors, innumerable electives including courses across the 11 other campus schools, and clubs too many to count in several broad categories: professional, athletics, social and special interest, community service, and international and cultural.

YET – Wharton does not sacrifice quality for quantity. Each of those many majors is deep and rigorous. Moreover, its tiered structure of 5-6-person Learning Teams at the core, selected to be diverse in multiple dimensions, surrounded by Clusters of 70 or so, encircled by Cohorts of about 200, ensures some consistency and drives dynamism throughout the learning process.

Especially with the Learning Teams and Cohorts, what you learn from teammates and classmates will help you to take full advantage of the program’s vast resources – and in turn, you can share what you discover about the program with them – your “2 cents” about a class or a major or a club might open a magical door for someone who otherwise would not have encountered it among the abundance of opportunities.

While bigness and abundance characterize this program, Wharton has devised the perfect learning structure that personalizes and optimizes it for students. Wharton is one of the most popular b-school from the M7 business schools list.

• Wharton Average GMAT score: 733
• Wharton Average GPA: 3.6
• Wharton Acceptance Rate: 9%

What Wharton is looking for in applicants

Wharton wants applicants who, along with being high performers, are actively engaged in activities and/or interests that contribute somehow – it doesn’t necessarily have to be community service, but some clear and consistent engagement outside work that positively impacts others. Finally, given Wharton's extensive opportunities and resources, it is essential that applicants show they are resourceful – Wharton does not want its abundance squandered.

6. Kellogg School of Management

Teamwork and management remain hallmarks of the Kellogg MBA program – teamwork is a means to the end of learning content and skills, growing as a leader and manager, preparing for your goals, and contributing to the Kellogg community. Kellogg’s renowned strength in management underpins the academic program with two management-focused majors, “Management Science” and “Managing Organizations,” along with numerous other traditional functional majors. Complementing these pillars of business training, Kellogg has innovated by offering also “Pathways,” which are cross-functional sets of courses that address timely topics, including, to mention a few new ones, “Technology Management,” “Energy and Sustainability,” and “Asset Management.”

Students can mix and match majors and pathways, benefiting from the accumulated wisdom of the scholars and experts who devise them. Kellogg has innovated in another area as well: it is one of the first US MBA programs to offer a one-year program (for people with some academic business foundation). Not least, Kellogg is renowned for its abundant global opportunities, which are taken by almost half of the students. It is a prestigious institute and a part of M7 business schools.

• Kellogg's Average GMAT score: 729
• Kellogg Average GPA: 3.7
• Kellogg Acceptance Rate: 21%

What Kellogg is looking for in applicants

Kellogg greatly values work experience that shows exemplary people skills: leadership, teamwork, collaboration, and communication, and that also presents a record of impactful accomplishment. As Kellogg’s student body is particularly strong in philanthropic activity, including this element is a way to show fit with the program.

7. Chicago Booth School of Business

Academic and intellectual rigor balanced by curricular flexibility – this intriguing balancing act is the valuable gift of the Chicago Booth MBA program. Intellectual culture is paramount at Booth – a reflection of the identity of the broader university to which it belongs. In the Booth MBA program, ideas are important – having them, sharing them, challenging them, testing them – and acting on them when the time is right. Booth has unrivaled depth among MBA programs in quantitative and analytic rigor, making it a valuable member of M7 business schools.

This is a fantastic asset both for students who want to refine existing strengths in these areas and also for students seeking a rock-solid foundation in them. Booth’s flexibility means students tailor their own learning program to their needs, which puts the onus on students to understand what they need.

Although students need not take a major, many Booth students do, in fact often pursuing a few, and Booth has compiled a fascinating array of majors that includes both standard items like “Accounting” and “Marketing Strategy” and less common ones like “Behavioral Science” and “Econometrics and Statistics.”

• Chicago Booth Average GMAT score: 729
• Chicago Booth Average GPA: 3.60
• Chicago Booth Acceptance Rate: 23%

What Booth is looking for in applicants

Because of the program’s flexibility, Booth looks for people who have the self-knowledge, critical thinking skills, and resourcefulness to make the most out of it and use it productively. And because the program values ideas, it looks for applicants who will go beyond practical career training to explore new topics, areas, and disciplines and who will challenge themselves intellectually.

Conclusion

Given their distinctive personalities, deep and comprehensive resources, and continuous adaptation to rapid economic, social, and technological change, these M7 business schools' MBA programs continue to lead in the MBA space. As different as they are, many applicants can find their needs met by several, if not all of them – each program will provide a positive life-changing experience in its own unique way. Exploring these programs in depth is a perfect way to kick off your MBA process, as you will be inspired to create and deliver your absolute best application presentation.