BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For the third consecutive year, the Kelley Direct Online MBA program at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business has been named the best online MBA program in U.S. News’ 2024 Best Online MBA Program rankings.
This is the seventh time since 2013, when U.S. News began ranking online degree programs, that it has ranked Kelley Direct No. 1. This latest recognition arrives as the Kelley School marks the 25th anniversary of the program.
In addition, this year Kelley Direct received top marks in five specialty categories, including a first place for marketing and finance and second place for business analytics, general management and programs serving veterans.
Ash Soni
“We’ve been doing this longer than any other leading business school, and we set the bar high, but what continues to make Kelley Direct a leader in online education is that we keep moving the bar higher,” said Ash Soni, dean of the Kelley School and the Sungkyunkwan Professor.
“Because everything we do is developed and delivered by our own faculty and staff, our students get a unique, personalized education that includes real-time classes and in-person immersion experiences on campus and on location around the world. Our thoughtful attention to programming is reflected in our multiple top rankings in specialty categories,” Soni added.
Created in 1999, Kelley Direct is the original online MBA program from a top-tier business school. The program is uniquely designed to meet the needs of working professionals, whose tuition dollars are reinvested into the program – not an online program manager. This empowers the program to offer its highest quality program at a lower price than top competitors.
Unlike many other online MBA programs, the Kelley Direct Online MBA is taught entirely by full-time Kelley faculty who create dynamic course content from the $10 million Jellison Studios housed within the Kelley School of Business.
Also making it distinctive are its in-person, immersive experiences, which include Kelley On Campus, that includes a live case where students apply what they’re learning in a real-world setting that also benefits a real client; and Kelley On Location, which enables students to take a deep dive into an industry, geographic region, or emerging challenge shaping today’s business landscape.
Will Geoghegan
Will Geoghegan, chair of Kelley Direct and clinical associate professor of management and entrepreneurship, noted that the No. 1 ranking not only is indicative of the program’s quality, but it also reflects the quality of its students.
“We are always looking for new ways for students to engage with one another and with our faculty and staff, as if they were here on campus, learning in person full-time,” Geoghegan said. “It’s important that our students see that they are learning with the best, in addition to learning from the best.”
In addition to the No. 1 ranking by U.S. News, Kelley also is ranked first by Fortune and Poets&Quants, which last fall ranked Kelley Direct No. 1 for the third time. In 2023, Princeton Review also named it the No. 1 program for the sixth time. QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the world’s leading provider of services, analytics and insight to the global higher education sector, ranked Kelley Direct No. 1 among all programs in the Americas.