Scott Galloway Calls for Compressing MBA to 15 Months, Labeling Second-Year Tuition a "Ruse"

NYU Stern marketing professor Scott Galloway criticized the traditional two-year MBA model, arguing that graduate business schools should condense curricula into a 15-month timeline to significantly reduce tuition costs and cut redundant electives.
Key arguments and structural critiques include:
• Tuition Inflation & the "Second-Year Ruse": Galloway argued that the second year of business school was primarily engineered as a networking vehicle that enables universities to double tuition charges rather than provide rigorous analytical instruction.
• Critique of High-Cost Electives: Highlighted that second-year coursework often devolves into low-value, $7,000-per-course electives in abstract topics like "leadership, sustainability, and ethics" taught by what he terms "FIPs" (Formerly Important People)—retired executives bringing in professional acquaintances rather than delivering foundational skills.
• Proposed 15-Month Model: Advocated for matriculating students in August and graduating them within 15 months at substantially lower tuition, preserving core business pedagogy while eliminating the extended, high-cost residency period.
• Return on Investment & Labor Dynamics: The critique reflects broader macroeconomic skepticism surrounding six-figure graduate degrees as corporate hiring slows, salary premiums compress, and executive education models increasingly face competition from condensed digital certificate sprints.