Auburn University online MBA students. Auburn again had the highest 1-year retention rate of our OMBA ranking, recording 100% returning students the last two years.
A defining factor of Poets&Quants’ ranking of the Best Online MBA Programs in the U.S. is the volume of supplementary data we release along with it. This includes what alumni think of the learning experience, how recent grads rate the degree’s impact on their early careers, and how easy – or hard – it is to get into one’s target programs.
Two factors that sometimes get overlooked, but definitely shouldn’t? The likelihood of students actually finishing the program after starting.
Last year, we added two metrics to our ranking methodology to measure how likely students are to earn a degree: the 6-year graduation rate and 1-year retention rate. Each can serve as indicators of the quality of the program and overall student satisfaction. High rates often suggest that the program effectively supports students through to completion, providing valuable resources, faculty support, and a conducive learning environment.
If you’re going to be throwing down good money for an online MBA, you want to know that you have a reasonable chance of actually completing the degree.
GRADUATION & RETENTION RATES
In our 2026 ranking, the 6-year graduation rate measures the percentage of students who enrolled during the 2019-2020 academic year that have graduated from the program within six years. (For programs that are not yet six years old, we used a 5-year, 4-year, or 3-year graduation rate.) The metric accounted for 10% of a program’s Admissions Standards score which, in turn, accounted for 33% of its overall ranking score.
The 6-year graduation rate is a common benchmarking metric for undergraduate degrees since most are developed as four-year programs. Online MBA degrees are much more varied in duration. Some are designed to take two to four years to complete, others three to five, depending on the flexibility and required credits for the program.
But, we wanted to measure – and show data for – graduation rates for the online programs we rank. We felt like the 6-year graduation rank shows completion for most programs’ suggested timeframes for completion while providing some standardization.
Our 1-year retention rate metric measures the percentage of students who enrolled in the 2023-2024 academic year who returned to the program the next year. It is a standard metric commonly tracked by both ranking publications and other education agencies. Like the 6-year graduation rate, the metric accounted for 10% of a program’s Admissions Standards score.
A high retention rate is one indicator of student satisfaction, effective academic support, and a curriculum that meets the needs and expectations of the students. It reflects how well programs engage students and supports them through the initial challenges. Online MBA students are often working professionals who balance their studies with full-time jobs and families. Time management, work-life-school balance, meaningful coursework are all hurdles online students may struggle with in that crucial first year.
HIGHEST & LOWEST GRAD & RETENTION RATES
Eighteen of the 61 programs ranked for 2026 had 6-year graduation rates of 90% or above. (Shorter durations were used for programs that are not six years old.)
This includes two programs that graduated all 2019-2020 enrollees, minus the allowable exclusions (death, military service, permanent disability, foreign aid service, or official church mission service). They are University of Missouri Trulaske College of Business (ranked No. 55 overall) in Columbia, MO, and Fairfield University Dolan School of Business (No. 17) in Connecticut.
At the other end of the spectrum, seventeen programs had graduation rates below 80%. Jack Welch Management Institute, which ranked No. 9 overall, had the lowest 6-year graduation rate of 53.1%
Auburn University Harbert College of Business (No. 7 overall) in Alabama posted a 100% 1-year retention rate for the second straight year, the highest rate in our ranking.
Altogether, 15 programs reported retention rates of 95% or higher, a strong indication that students felt sufficiently supported and challenged to continue.
Conversely, seven programs retained fewer than 80% of its enrollees after one year.
NEXT PAGE: Graduation & Retention Rates At All 61 Ranked OMBA Programs