Fuqua's Daytime MBA applications fell 23% this cycle and the class came in 67 seats smaller (426 to 359), while Fuqua's search traffic fell 39% since April. Prospects ask Google and AI ~54,000 generic MBA questions a month, and Fuqua isn't in the top 100 for most of them. This models what answering them, plus program-search ads, is worth in new students and net tuition. Only the application-to-enrollment rate is Fuqua's own; every other rate is a placeholder until Fuqua's numbers replace it.
Ads alone: ~12 new students. With the pages ranking: ~17 on the same ad budget.
The class came in 67 seats smaller this year (426 to 359). Yellow is what the pages add.
A year of visits and ad clicks at the rates set above. Only the last step, application to enrollment, is Fuqua's own rate.
| Inquiry to application | $83,7001 year, list | $117,180placeholder | $167,4002 years, list |
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Net tuition a class. Columns are net tuition per new student: one year of Daytime MBA list tuition, the placeholder (two years less a 30% average scholarship) and two full years at list. Every other rate as set above; the yellow cell matches the current setting.
| Ad budget a year | $300,000 |
| Ad clicks a year | 20,000 |
| New students from ads | 11.6 |
| Net tuition per $1 of ads | $4.53 |
| Ad cost per new student | $25,862 |
Pages add ~5.6 students on the same ad budget.
For scale: buying the same 2,700 visits a month as ads would cost ~$40,500 a month at $15.00 a click. Pages also reach what ads can't: AI answers and the ~85% of generic MBA clicks ads rarely win.
Each month without the plan defers ~$168K of net tuition. Fuqua's search traffic is down 6,201 visits a month since April (−39%), from ~15,857 to ~9,656 (Ahrefs). Round 2 closes Jan 5, 2027: ads can still reach it, and the ads part, ~$1.4M at these rates, is what the class entering in fall 2027 can mostly still get. Pages take 3–6 months to rank, so they mostly land for the class entering in fall 2028.