Like an over-booked airline, MIT pays accepted students to give up their seats.

[coureur]

MIT's Sloan business school got a higher than expected yield and thus offered as much as $20K to new students to quit the class and enroll next year:

Bad Math: MIT Miscounts Its New B-School Students - WSJ.com

[Erin's Dad]

Wow. At least they just wait a year.

[ahsmuoh]

Ohio State medical school did the same last year. One of my associates' daughter was offered to "take a year off" and they paid for her first year of medical school when she came the following year - seemed like a no brainer at that point! She moved home - got a job and saved some money.

[ucbalumnus]

The implication is that next year's admission class will face slightly higher standards, both the reduce enrollment and to account for seats and financial aid reserved for the students who deferred the previous year.

[qialah]

(Tuition for the 2012-2013 academic year is $58,200, with total expenses—including books, housing and food—estimated at just under $89,000.)

Good Lord. And I though undergraduate costs were high.

[ucbalumnus]

In theory, those students entering elite MBA programs have already saved up some money from high paying jobs before, and expect to be recruited into very high paying elite investment banking and similar jobs after completing their MBAs, so they may be willing to pay even more for their elite MBA programs than undergraduates (and their parents) are.

It is not like the cost of education for a year of an MBA program is necessarily that much greater than for a year of an undergraduate program (especially when the latter may include expensive things like labs, art studio, etc.).

[ellemenope]

If you could keep working at your Wall Street job for the year, it might not be a bad deal.

[OperaDad]

Higher yield a sign of the economy?

[Hanna]

It's possible, but anyone who is admitted to Sloan probably has a good job.

[coureur]

>>If you could keep working at your Wall Street job for the year, it might not be a bad deal.<<

Yeah, that would great. But unfortunately MIT didn't really realize it had a big problem on its hands until the "summer melt" failed to materialize. By then most new students had already quit their jobs and moved to Cambridge, making it very difficult for them to entertain the bonus offers.

[zobroward]

putting plans on hold for a year for b school or med school is nuts! you got to keep the momentum moving.

[entomom]

D1 told me about this happening at at med school, can't remember which one but it wasn't Ohio State.

They first asked matriculants to voluntarily defer for a year, and a few did so. THEN they offered a monetary incentive and more students took the offer. They didn't make the offer retroactive to the original volunteers which made for some animosity.

[Dad_of_3]

D1 told me about this happening at at med school, can't remember which one but it wasn't Ohio State.

Penn State, Hershey.

[cbreeze]

In theory, those students entering elite MBA programs have already saved up some money from high paying jobs before, and expect to be recruited into very high paying elite investment banking and similar jobs after completing their MBAs, so they may be willing to pay even more for their elite MBA programs than undergraduates (and their parents) are.

Those who are doing well with high paying jobs,especially in Wall Street don't need to get MBAs. The costs to them are too high and the ROI doesn't make sense.A graduate business degree is not like a law degree or medical degree that one needs in order to do business.
The ones entering elite MBA schools are for those who want a career change or that they didn't get a name brand under-graduate degree or they aren't competitive enough to advance in their field.

[cbreeze]

My D's post MBA total compensation almost doubled compared to pre-MBA and it was certainly much more than $20K.