The MBA was born at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School 114 years ago with a four-student class. Today there are hundreds of thousands of MBA students a year earning degrees in thousands of institutions worldwide.

More than that, for the first time ever, the MBA has become the most popular master’s degree in the U.S. after education, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Education. In 2011-2012, the last year for which data is available, 191,571 people graduated from U.S. schools with advanced degrees in business, some 25.4% of all the master’s degrees conferred. That compares with 178,062 master’s in education, or 23.6%, of all the advanced degrees (See table below).

THE MBA SURPASSED THE MASTER’S IN EDUCATION AS THE MOST POPULAR POSTGRADUATE DEGREE

Through most of the modern era, a master’s in education had long been the dominant degree, in part because some states require it to teach. Indeed, back in 1970-71, business master’s accounted for just 11.2% of all postgraduate degrees, while education dominated with 37.2%. In those days, even advanced degrees in the humanities, which had 14.6% of the market for master’s degrees, exceeded those in business. The remarkable growth of the MBA—largely due to its widespread acceptance by employers and the almost assured return-on-investment of the degree—has been fairly steady during the past half-century, making the degree the most successful educational product of the past 50 to 100 years.

How come? Srilata Zaheer, dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, has seen the transformative power of the degree first hand. “A business degree remains one of the most predictable paths to success and financial stability and can provide the proverbial leg up from relative poverty to great accomplishment and wealth,” she maintains.

“In uncertain times, such as we have had since 2008, it tends to draw more students who make this connection. We have any number of alumni from our MBA programs who have come from small towns, modest backgrounds, often the first generation in college, going on to become immensely successful entrepreneurs and leaders of global firms.” She cites John Stumpf, chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo as an example. “He grew up in a farm family of 11 children in Pierz, MN, sharing a bedroom with his brothers, and being the first in his family to go to college,” she recalls.

Paul Danos, who as dean of Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, is the longest-serving leader of a major B-school, believes the growth has come become schools have adapted to the changing needs of the companies and organizations that hire MBAs.

THE MBA HAS ADAPTED TO CHANGE ‘BETTER THAN ANY OTHER FORM OF ADVANCED EDUCATION’

“Businesses have grown enormously in complexity and scope, and more than ever, they need ethical, skilled, well-educated, creative leaders who are global in outlook,” says Danos. “Business education in general and the great MBA programs in particular have adapted as these demands have grown, perhaps better than any other form of advanced education.” The Department of Education numbers support his point of view. In 1980-1981, some 19.1% of all the master’s granted were in business. In 1990-1991, advanced degrees in business grew to 22.8% of the total market, and in 2000-2001 to 24.4%. The biggest gains for the degree occurred in the ten years from 1975 to 1985 when master’s in business grew to 22.5% of the total from 13.4%.

As far back as 1975, the MBA blew past both law and medical degrees in the U.S. But it was only three years ago, in 2010-2011, that business edged out education as the most popular advanced degree, accounting for 25.6% of all master’s versus the 25.3% for education. The numbers for business are largely made up of MBAs but also include specialized business master’s programs, including master’s of finance or accounting.

Says Danos: “Top business schools have continuously changed in response to the ever-changing demands of business; and this can be seen in how crucial issues such as: ethics, sustainability, leadership, technology, globalization and much more have been mainstreamed into MBA programs along with the classic core topics of business management.”